A celebration of Hadrian's Wall 1900

Myth Club led the whole school assembly to launch the year-long celebrations that mark 1900 years since the building of Hadrian’s Wall. With special guest Mr Briggs in the role of the emperor Hadrian himself, Myth Club took on the identities of people who lived along this remarkable feat of Roman engineering, as well as explaining how it both divided and then united Celts and Romans. Even the sheep (including the imperfect one, which all Latin students of Year 8 and above know, goes “ba”) played their part beautifully in showing how the wall eroded over time, so that we now need a little education and imagination to remember its huge impact over the past two millennia.

During their next lessons, Year 7 and Year 8 further investigated the diversity of Roman Britain by investigating tombstones and analysing all the information this can reveal, such as their gender, career, origins and how each artefact shows their beliefs and ideals. This led to some fascinating discussion on identity, British values in the ancient and modern world and challenged many stereotypical beliefs about what it meant to be ‘a Roman’, especially when looking at the tombstone set up by the Syrian Barates for his Essex wife (and ex-slave) Regina, or ‘Queenie’ as she is often called nowadays. The resources provided by the Great North Museum: Hancock really helped bring home just how far afield so many people travelled and made many students reconsider the impact this has had on our world today. With the Holocaust Memorial Day on 27^th January, it was a timely reminder of the importance of respect, tolerance and understanding of all.

When tasked with exploring the website Romans Revealed - Home independently, Sophie in Year 7 observed: “There were lots of things that caught my eye, including animal games, garum, and how it was so easy to die from illnesses that are now treatable – poor Savariana! But what interested me the most was Brucco's story. He says that people travelled around the empire a lot, including from Spain to Britain, but also that opinions were mixed on how welcome foreigners were – he welcomes them, but Tongilianus doesn't. This feels a lot like nothing has changed in 2000 years!”

Later the same week, all of Year 9 were treated by the Classics Department to a fascinating lecture by world-famous visiting author, Ben Kane, dressed as a Roman legionary soldier. This fit beautifully with the theme of the week as Ben has twice walked the whole length of Hadrian’s Wall in full Roman military uniform for charity. The students were spellbound throughout the talk on Roman Daily Life and learnt a great deal. Connections were made between our lives, experiences and concerns today and those of the ancient world. We also found out how much we can learn from the likes of Roman sewers, for instance that peppercorns from India were found in Pompeii, again illustrating the diversity of the ancient world. There were several inquisitive questions from Year 9 in the last few minutes of their lesson and Ben could show them some of the replica artefacts he had brought along, before signed copies of his books were purchased. Indeed, the Reading Week just before this talk provided an opportunity for students to find out more about the ancient world when Year 9 begun Rosemary Sutcliffe’s ‘Eagle of the Ninth’, linking their study of Roman Britain in Latin and Ben Kane’s superb talk.

When asked what they had learnt in this session, Year 9’s responses included:

“Public toilets were not common, the rich people would show off by leaving their doors open, there could still be things like villas in bath that have not been discovered yet, money armbands which they put money and wool in to stop the coins rattling around in, slaves had chalk put on their feet when they were being sold to stop them escaping, not many women could read or write, and more!”

The Classics Department is committed to bringing the ancient world alive and the start of our Hadrian’s Wall 1900 celebrations reveal just how important it is that we do!