Hadrian's Wall
Fall 1999
This amazing feat of engineering was accomplished in the early part of this millenimum, around 122-126 A.D. The Roman Emperor, Hadrian couldn't lick the Scots, so he built a huge stone wall 73.5 mi. all the way across Britain, to keep them out! It was manned at regular intervals by roman soldiers and little forts cropped up as the soldiers married and had families. It was finally abandoned by the Roman Empire years later when it became to expensive to maintain such a distant and rebellious island.
There's a great museum at one place we visited called Vindelanda. As wet as England and Scotland are, these artifacts were buried in very dry pockets and that's why paper with party invitations and ledgers, leather shoes and other interesting things have been found besides the usual pottery and weapons.
