Research on Benwell Vallum Crossing

The Vallum causeway was excavated in the 1930s, but not all the excavations were published. There is potential for further research and excavation.

Black and white photograph of Benwell Vallum causeway under excavation in 1934 — A photograph taken during excavation of the Vallum causeway in 1934, showing the east side of the causeway, viewed from the south. (From Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, 11, 1934)

Excavations

The Vallum causeway and short lengths of the adjacent ditch were excavated in 1932–3. In 1934 the site was placed in the care of the state; it was consolidated for permanent display in 1938, following further excavations in 1937 and 1938 which explored the buildings over the remaining lengths of the ditch within the present fenced area.^[1] Apart from the pottery,^[2] these later excavations remain unpublished.

Research Potential and Priorities

There is potential for research which might clarify issues connected with the Vallum, including its original purpose, the process of silting and filling of the ditch, and the date and implications of the slighting, filling and, possibly, reconditioning of the earthwork.
The Vallum at Benwell is also of particular importance for establishing the date at which it was constructed. General research priorities connected with the Vallum are outlined in Frontiers of Knowledge, vol 2: Agenda and Strategy, 3.5.7 and 4.6.^[3]
The records of the 1937–8 excavations should be published (even though the plans and photos are apparently missing) and those of the published excavation should be assessed to see if they contain additional information.
The date and identification of the pottery from the Vallum filling should be reassessed in the light of modern research.

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Footnotes

1. The results of the excavation are summarised in P Salway, The Frontier People of Roman Britain (Cambridge, 1967), 71–3.
2. E Birley, ‘Figured samian from Benwell, 1938’, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, 25 (1947), 52–67; B Swinbank, ‘Pottery from levels of the second and third century, covering the Vallum at Benwell’, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, 33 (1955), 142–62.
3. MFA Symonds and DJP Mason (eds), Frontiers of Knowledge: A Research Framework for Hadrian’s Wall, vol 2: Agenda and Strategy (Durham, 2009) (accessed 26 November 2012).