September 19, 2002
9:01 AM   Subscribe

Before the Berlin Wall, there was Hadrian's Wall, one of the most successful attempts ever to keep noisy neighbours at bay. It's still an impressive sight, even though most of its stone has been recycled over the centuries. Nothing beats walking it in person, but thanks to the web you can see a 3D VRML model of one of its forts, read about the digital imaging of thousands of written documents unearthed at another, and even read a 2000-year-old request to "send me some cash as soon as possible".
posted by rory (9 comments total)
 
There's also the official Hadrian's Wall site, Vindolanda site, and National Trust page on Housesteads Fort, for those who are thinking of visiting.
posted by rory at 9:01 AM on September 19, 2002


beautiful link. thank you.
posted by fishfucker at 9:31 AM on September 19, 2002


rory, thanks for such a great collection of pointers - really nice! They look well worth devoting some time to explore - particularly the documents that are being preserved.

It really is an impressive thing to see up close - beautiful countryside, sheep grazing on either side...it almost felt as though nothing had changed, I had a real sense of communing with the past.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:08 AM on September 19, 2002


Hear, hear. Great collection of links. I enjoyed this post thoroughly. Thanks.
posted by thekorruptor at 10:10 AM on September 19, 2002


I LOVE BRITISH HISTORY. Let me just get that out of my system. I probably read at least 2 books a month about Britain. I saw a little bit of the wall when I lived in London and took a trip to Scotland. It was mostly a small pile of stones. My ancestors were "Reavers' (second paragraph of the link) who lived in that area (Armstrongs) so this stuff fascincates me. The amount of betrayl and intrigue during the time of the wall being built and acually being useful is amazing. It's a wonder anyone survived that time! Thanks for the link!

On a side note..aren't those pictures beautiful? I'd love to live in a place so green. Notice how there are no trees? This is a direct result of the presence of sheep in Scotland and England for thousands of years. They've eaten all the baby trees so there aren't any more. They've changed the landscape!
posted by aacheson at 10:11 AM on September 19, 2002


VRML? Wow I forgot I had installed a plug-in, boy is that a dead format, hadn't visited a vrml site in a while.
posted by bobo123 at 10:32 AM on September 19, 2002


Memories of walking beside Hadrian's Wall as a child, came rushing back with this link, thanks Rory.
posted by Tarrama at 9:55 PM on September 19, 2002


aacheson "I saw a little bit of the wall when I lived in London and took a trip to Scotland. "

Ahem. Hadrian's wall is in England, except for its very western tip. There is a different wall in Scotland - the Antonine wall.

This may seem petty, but it is very important if you're from Northumberland.
posted by prentiz at 2:19 AM on September 20, 2002


Glad you enjoyed it, folks.
posted by rory at 5:03 AM on September 20, 2002


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