The Horsemen of HadriansWall - Digging for Britain (Series 6/4)

sizing through the landscape of northern Britain is Hadrian's Wall our most famous Roman monument it was built nearly 2,000 years ago as a dividing line separating Roman lands and the south from the barbarians to the north at the heart of the Wolves story is a band of Forgotten warriors they are the Roman cavalry for over a century historians and archaeologists have been unearthing views about the Roman cavalry helping to build a picture of their forgotten world and now digging for Britain is going to join this search at archaeological digs they're marrying with the people who generations ago they actually conquered it's over lipped Roman sites so these are serious military bases holding hundreds of people and in museums and archives starting really build up this lovely picture of who these people are this year an international team of archaeologists historians and reenactors have come together using the latest evidence to restore the cavalry to their rightful place in the story of the Roman Empire as part of this collaboration a team of modern riders has been recruited for a unique historical display which will celebrate the power and splendour of the Roman cavalry this is one of the most challenging things that I've done this projects combined with new research will allow us to examine how those elusive warriors lived and reveal their crucial role in conquering and controlling Roman Britain each new piece of information comes together to help us tell the Forgotten story of Rome's secret weapon it [Music] when we think of the Romans in Britain we tend to focus on the flip soldiers the Legionaries but in fact the Roman cavalry was central to their military strategy and success but these elite warriors have vanished from the public imagination even in the Roman era it was the foot soldiers the Legionaries who hugged the limelight but the Roman cavalry were at the heart of some of Rome's greatest victories and they were key to running and defending that vast empire the cavalry were far fewer in number than the infantry but vital in conquering and controlling Rome's sprawling Empire but everything we know about them has to be pieced together from small clues found in ancient literature unearthed stood archaeological dates in 2017 10 museums along Hadrian's Wall brought for the first time all of these fragments of evidence together to create a major exhibition celebrating the legacy of these ancient warrior horsemen the climax of this project a live cavalry reenactment involving 30 modern riders they're attempting to stage a Roman cavalry tournament a test of skill and bravery which no one has seen for over 1,600 years they're drawing on history on painstakingly translated ancient documents as well as the latest archaeological revelations in order to bring to life one of the most dazzling spectacles of the Roman world and it's providing the academics with a unique opportunity to discover something new by putting their theories into practice they hope to find out how the cavalry rode how they kick to his ward and actually worked and what battle tactics they might have brought with them to Britain this experiment archaeology takes us out of the realm of guesswork and moves us into an area where we can start to make some reasonable estimates as to what's possible it doesn't give us the answer or it's every bit as varied as fieldwork [Music] as the team prepares for the Big Show I'm going to seek out evidence the cavalry left behind to help build a picture of their role in Roman Britain my journey begins in Northumberland on Hadrian's Wall itself [Music] when the emperor hadrian came to power in 117 ad he launched a vast building scheme to consolidate the sprawling frontiers of the empire he'd inherited he built a new line of Defense's snaking across 3,000 miles of his frontier from North Africa to the Black Sea and on through Central Europe to Britain in northern England Hadrian's project was realized as an impassable wall 15 feet high stretching 75 miles from coast to coast it was designed to keep out the wild British tribes who live to the north on a day like this you can imagine being a Roman soldier and being pretty disgruntled having been stationed here on Hadrian's Wall on the very northern boundary of this wonderful Empire looking at it the land of the barbarians over there but I think what's really interesting me today is finding out how ideas of the wall have evolved over time and that's all about new archaeological discoveries I want to find out why Hadrian's Wall became the center of operations for the Roman cavalry to get some answers I'm meeting one of the leading experts on how Hadrian's will worked Matt Simmons matt has minutely researched the 80 small forts dotted along the wall which we now know as mile castles if there's a building attached to the wall then what is it it is it's a building known as a mile castle and this particular one is mile castle 37 say if this is a mile castle does that mean that were actually small forts like this every mile along Hadrian's rule essentially yes there is a small amount of leeway allowed but it is an incredibly regimented and ordered system and there is a radical departure from what the Roman army was doing before these mile castles saw the Roman army rip up its traditional approach to defense which had been based on temporary wooden forts here in northern England they built a continuous line of permanent stone forts all linked by this defensive wall that is an incredibly close surveillance system and it must almost certainly be about making sure you had people in the right positions to stop them from sneaking over the wall unobserved so if you like it's an early warning system the number of soldiers based on a mile castle would have been very very small indeed maybe only eight in that small barrack block over there but it looks as though there was a major change of plan during the construction process our Hadrian's Wall was being built the plan evolved as well as those small mile castles the roman army also began to build a series of huge heavily defended forts into the line of the wall itself so these are serious military bases holding hundreds of people a far cry from the eight or so the handful of people you'd find in here perhaps the most famous and dramatic of all of these forts is haste Ed's and crucially the Romans filled forts like this not just with ordinary foot soldiers but with cavalry man perhaps that was a reaction to the ferocity of the native Britons to the north or just a bureaucratic decision from on high whatever the reason from this point on these forts and their cavalry became key to defending Hadrian's Wall when you think about the frontier we mustn't just think about this line it's a crucial part of it but there's a much wider frontier zone and by having concentrated forces and in particular by having cavalry you have that strike force to the north and indeed to the south should you need it so it's about really enhancing that capability there's about controlling a zone rather than having this line yeah the Romans wanted it all they're controlling a line and they're controlling zones to either side just looking at this landscape you can see why the Romans decided to move their cavalry under Hadrian's Wall fast horsemen could mean quickly to cut off the first signs of trouble from the native Britons not far from here is another of these huge forts built into Hadrian's Wall this one was built at a strategic crossing of the River Tyne at a place now called Chester's in its heyday it was home to 500 cavalry men and their horses new discoveries here are helping to reveal why the Roman cavalry was such an effective fighting force to discover more on meeting Kevin Boothe of English heritage [Music] one of the most recognizable parts of the fort is its living quarters or barracks Barrett blocks are similar right across the Roman Empire but there was always a mystery at cavalry bases there was plenty of accommodation for the soldiers but where were the stables the answer emerged in the late 1990s when archeologists in Newcastle made a remarkable discovery during excavations of a similar barrack block they found a series of shallow pits and it was realized that these were rudimentary drains for horses urine so the men and the horses were in fact living in the same buildings in each of these space you've got three men three horses living side-by-side so there would have been three men and three horses in just this space it just seemed quite extraordinary and through the relatively narrow doorway in fact we've stood pretty much on the line of the of the petition between the front half with the horses and the men at the back it would have been pretty dank and smelly in here I imagine to our sensibilities no doubt yeah but I suppose you get used to anything it seems like a bikini especially why wouldn't they have stables elsewhere why are they kind of forcing the men and the horses in together it's intimate and perhaps that's the point you're maintaining that strong bond between the man and his horse and that is also to do with finance you know the horse essentially appeared four out of the Roman soldiers wages he has a financial investment in it and they also if you've got a thought that has 500 horses in it hygiene and and good maintenance is all and then also if you need to get out of the north gate of this fort at speed you're ready you're prepared you're away so you're on call here in the barracks ready to jump on your horse and set off at any time absolutely permanently these men must have had a uniquely close relationship with their horses which it's hard for us to understand they lived side by side and fought together to try to understand how the Roman cavalry rode and Fault on horseback I'm meeting the leader of the modern riding trip Allen Larson who's there this is Finbar and Finbar has the distinction in the thermos show of being the amount of the emperor hadrian really and he's got the most magnificent set of recreated second-century Sadler II on Ellis any fend off an amazing saddle I mean this saddle looks completely different from modern saddles well it's not the most comfortable of saddles it does the job brilliantly I'd say how do you know what Roman saddles would have been like a bear we owe a great debt to a wonderful man called dr. Peter Connelly who reconstructed the Roman saddles from the LaCava the elta leather cover which was found preserved in a bog during a dig at a Roman cavalry camp he had the genius moment of realizing that if you if you put a frame inside it it could function perfectly well and I noticed that Finbar hasn't got any stirrups no so is that normal Roman Roman cavalry saddles do not have stirrups they didn't need them essentially they were so well wedged into the saddle with these four horns that they were able to do everything that that a modern writer can do and what about the horses themselves Allen well what would they have been like were they very different to modern horses yeah they're Roman cavalry horses were small by our standards Finbar is 15 hands and that's as big as Roman cavalry horses got somebody choosing to have small horses or was that just all that was available no that was all that was available the majority of them were what we core ponies but the good news about that is that a sure-footed sturdy little pony can carry you from miles and miles days and they up and down the hills in country that a bigger more finely bred horse would begin to falter on these small rugged horses a cavalry man could travel 40 miles in a day [Music] selecting the right horses is also going to be crucial for the xxx modern reenactors they were taking on the huge challenge of staging a Roman cavalry tournament a month before the big show treat leader Allen Larson is bringing together six key riders and their horses for a vital first training session in the Roman age cavalry tournaments were designed to showcase the horsemen skills in a public arena these six riders are taking on the role of the elite who starred in the highlight of the tournament a competition of horsemanship fought between two teams it's undoubtedly one of the most challenging of equestrian and reenactment disciplines and a relatively few number of riders have the skills and determination to see it through [Music] historians have pieced together what they know about Roman cavalry tournaments from the ancient literature but this project will allow them to examine the cavalries equipment in action as well as to better understand the tactics and maneuvers they've only ever read about at today's session the team needs to practice three of these maneuvers which they'll eventually be performing at the show before they begin Nigel the lead rider called the team together for a briefing to discuss the first task the so called can't a Brean wheel okay everybody everybody happy with their horses right what we can do first while we're in modern club in a modern tank is start putting together the basis of that conserve rien wheel okay so in that make er and shadow will be the target horses and you four will be riding around pelting our shields with your javelins the contagion wheel was a classic Roman battle tactic which was practiced as part of the cavalry tournament on the battlefield it was designed to have wrath enemy forces but in the tournament the cavalry men scored points by hitting their opponents with blunted javelins good bad shot we're putting the horses and the riders through their paces they're concentrating on the business of hurling javelins at each other in a competition which will be as much of a spectacle now as it was in the early second century AD [Music] the modern riders are discovering firsthand that Roman cavalry tournaments were probably also a key part of training soldiers for war with one exercise under their belts they'll now attempt to other disciplines from the Roman cavalry tournament the pursuit in which one rider attacks and then flees defending their back with their shield and the charge which is like a medieval joust where two riders meet in a clash of javelins at speed but during the charge the team gets the taste of just how tough Roman cavalry riding can be this alone this is off okay Lucy is winded by The Fool but nothing is broken I'm feeling okay bruised but I'll be fine so you're gonna get back inside I'm gonna get back in the saddle yeah that's what we do we'll get back in the saddle the riders are relying heavily on their recreated Roman saddles and lisas accidents as highlighted that they're testing these things for their limits and they'll need to improve them to go form and there's one on the side here so that's what happened that should be there it just ripped under the pressure so this is going to need a good repair before we actually get to the event the elite riders won't practice again as a group until they meet in Carlisle for the event when they'll have to work with 24 other riders as a complete Roman troupe there's still a long way to go before they can stage a successful tournament every piece of equipment you put almost more difficult and the visibility was a bit of a problem at times it is tiring very very tiring I'm very very tired from ancient records we know that there would have been around 10,000 cavalry men in Britain at any one time but not all of them were stationed on Hadrian's Wall there was in fact a network of cavalry forts located across the north all designed to help Romans control the local population one of the most important cavalry bases in northern Britain was built at rib Chester near modern Preston in 70ad and currently archeologists are uncovering new clues about who those cavalry men actually were since 2015 a team from the university of central lancashire has been running this new dig at rib Chester much of the fort now lies under the modern village so the team has opened a trench in a back garden they've revealed a number of the cavalry forts buildings and are beginning to understand the fort layout but they're also starting to find small clues that can tell them more about where the men who lived here came from dig co-director Duncan Sayer is examining an intriguing piece of pottery the team is found under this bucket we have a vaulting tube this would have been a much larger object it comes around here somewhere as a tube on one end and then it has a socket on the other and you can see on this here it just has slightly more of a curve on this side than it does on this side so when you put lots and lots and lots and lots of those together then it creates an arch what's quite nice about this is these things are seen only in North Africa and Chester's Roman fort and that's really interesting because the Spanish cavalry came here first and then they moved on to Chester's and so somewhere there would be these gently domed buildings which is I think quite nice we've looked really quite exotic and even out of place in rural Lancashire this fault was first manned by a Spanish cavalry regiment who must have brought this exotic architecture with them cavalry men were recruited from conquered tribes across the Roman Empire from places like France Spain the Netherlands Eastern Europe Syria and North Africa but as well as finding clues about who these men were the team is also finding incredible personal artifacts that give us a glimpse into daily life here while they take a break Duncan say Earth is meeting fine specialist Justine Biddle to examine some of the most recently discovered objects what is this Justine so this is what's known as a turret ring that would be part of our horse's bridle fitting it would go on on the cheek yeah and you'd have one one part of the rain would be go one part the harness would be going back towards the head and holding that the harness in position that's very interesting so it really gives us that that evidence of ridden horses yes exactly and then one of the best pieces of dating evidence on a Roman site is just the expect to find loads of coins especially in military sites it's a silver Denarius of the Emperor Vespasian there is it's got a dolphin an anchor on the reverse side of it and that was minted between 79 and 89 ad probably comes over and is lost in the from the pocket or from the the pouch of a Roman yep cavalry soldier yeah well most certainly it had been a bit noisy value isn't it he would have been really cross man losing that that's quite a little money that's just falling into the ditch but it's not only digs that can reveal new information about who the cavalry men were and sometimes these clues can be found in the most unexpected places this is hexam abbey the original church here was one of the oldest in Britain but I'm after something even more ancient and that's one of the most striking traces that we have of the Roman cavalry when the original Saxon church was built here at hexam much of the stain used was robbed from nearby roman buildings during renovation work in the 19th century workers discovered a huge flag stain in the floor when it was lifted it turned out to be a Roman cavalry tombstone to find out more about it I'm meeting Lindsey Alison Jones of Newcastle University Lindsey this is a magnificent tombstones absolutely huge who is this relic unit well this is my uncle Flavius who was a standard bearer in the cavalry regiment of the Petry honour and you can see he's holding the standard there say he was presumably very well known he was high status to have something like this as his grave marker this has been an extremely expensive gravestone it's got an enormous amount decoration and detail and you can see all the detail of the horse you can see the horse's mane you can see all the reins and the trappings here all these all these horse trappings that we find archaeologically and they are team things like this have been invaluable in revealing what a cavalry man looked like they show us how things like the horse tack and the weapons were actually worn but this tombstone can also reveal more about this particular man's identity and how cavalrymen wanted to be remembered he's shown in heroic pose galloping away months coiled barbarian he's slain is not in heroic pose he's being booted up the back side but he's still hanging on to his sword fighting back to the end being trampled under first absolutely yes hey what do we know about this man other than that he's obviously in the cavalry well the inscription at the bottom tells us his name is for Venus but he's only got the one name which suggests he's not a Roman citizen it's possible that he came from Gaul or from Spain and it's interesting that he's you know he's shamed trampling a barbarian but if as you say he may have been a Celt he may have been a goal then you know his his family would have been barbarians just a couple of generations back yes well one man's barbarian there's another man's neighbor and but this is this is a an artistic trope this is the way Katherine would like to be shown wherever they came from what if these men were part of the Roman army they seem to have embraced their new roles wholeheartedly the impression this tombstone gives is that he may have been from a noble family and if you were a young man with heroic bent who was keen on horses then becoming a cavalry man the Roman army was the best way to really live your life and the way you wanted to there is an element if you if you can't beat them join them isn't there oh yes I think so yeah yes and of course he only been very well-paid as well yes I've able to afford all this bling the cavalry men were the elite of the Roman army and this status drew young men from across the Roman Empire even from conquered peoples into their ranks and now having seen cavalry kit depicted on a tombstone and pieces recovered archaeologically I want to see what they looked like on the men and their horses in the flesh and to do that I'm joining Nigel who'll be leading the elite riders in the show and he's also an amateur historian of cavalry not oh you've got some of the kits ready here talk me through it well let's start with the first piece of protection the important thing is the mail and like most fingers Roman it's not Roman so it's been adopted from the garlic chives I see how heavy that is oh wait I think he's around 11 12 kilos it must be at least that girl that's a huge weight to be carrying range before you start to lead it with all the weapons themselves yeah I mean once it's on your body the load is spread yeah yeah okay so you're wearing 12 kilos worth of chainmail and then you're carrying a shields as well so that's a pretty heavy is quite heavy that yeah see where that we are these thumb we are using these two straps ease and not correct yeah okay no evidence for strapping like that but because we're using modern horses and riding in the modern style we've got a compromise yeah our best guess from all of the evidence is actually they are holding the shield in a center grip right with the reins in the same hand part the problem you getting as well as that weight means that you are always unbalanced on a horse and what we're starting to find after a couple of values is that we're all getting a lot of pressure on the right side of our groin and that's because we counterbalance in that way by putting more pressure on the right side of the horse yeah so it's higher and I'll right late morning on their plate what the elite Roman cavalry were most famous for was their masked helmet many of these remarkable objects have been discovered across Europe and these finds have provided templates for Nigel and his team's modern recreations but archaeologists have never been sure if these elaborate helmets were just for show or whether they could have been used in combat some of these helmets like this sports helmet here is a perfectly functioning cavalry helmet yeah and the only thing is different is the addition of the face mask now if that face mask is made to fit the cavalry man's face absolutely fine better visibility in the later medieval helmet I need to affect psychologically on an enemy would be tremendous there's something quite scary about them that an expressionless face I think yeah but the idea that you know it inhibits you so much that you know they were impractical for use what we'll we'll be demonstrating that's Knight case can I try one absolutely thank you if it weren't these on first yep okay okay should go straight on oh yeah it's kind of snug fish actually yeah way needs to be well you can't have is it moving because that's when you'll be blind yeah so it needs to be you need to get used to discomfort having it firmly fixed over your face I'm not even moving in here Nigel it's getting it's getting a bit hot and sweaty already yeah just from my breathing I'm gonna take that off it's amazing to know you see much detail isn't it a lot of this is kind of working out what works you know what kind of padding you need how it all fits together how it all works together and you can only really do that by trying it out yes absolutely I'm really looking forward to the term of this afternoon but I've already started and learned a lot more about the Roman cavalry from talking to the archaeologists and about how important this experimental archaeology is when suddenly all of their research gets tested gets put into practice how does that feel and how does it work to put on all of that armor all of that kit get on a horse and ride out into battle what made the elite Roman cavalry such feared warriors wasn't just access to the best kit available but a grueling training regime but the modern riders who are putting on the cavalry tournament have to cram their Roman cavalry training and to just one session the day before the performance for the first time all 30 horses and riders are in one place they need to gel as a unit and perfect a difficult maneuver that's a key part of the show this is one of the most challenging things that I've done technically it's hugely difficult bringing you together this number of horses and riders for the first time to try and do justice to what was an elite military force when we go out next as we are I'm gonna go out with shields and with spears we're going to do some basic drill with the whole termer together so we're gonna make our way down we're going to come into the arena in files a blue file and the red file I'm then going to take us through some basic drill around the arena which as you know is the basis of the show this afternoon my primary concern has always got to be the horses and keeping them happy and healthy you've also got to be aware of how hard you can push men to achieve the result morale in it is crucial based on ancient literature it's thought the determine the Latin for troupe was made up of thirty horsemen the key thing to perfect in the rehearsal is a wheeled where the whole termer will ride around the arena in two ranks at a trot and then at a canter it's a complex and difficult maneuver to choreograph do you learn a lot about how they must have done it in roman times because when you try this stuff yourself you understand a whole set of just small practical details but they add up and that's something we think about training the men the cavalry men but in some ways they're much less important than kept training the cavalry horses together so you learn all sorts of things as well as small details of tack and kit and so on and a lot of the skills really must have taken years of practice to get effective we're playing catch-up they had it they were the Masters and we're playing catcher both looking forward to it in a bit nervous about it I think this is the most nervous I've been about a reenactment I do so many of them each year but this one seems to be a higher stakes and we have more to prove or more that can go wrong I really fail I'm beginning to build up a picture of who these Roman cavalry men were I've seen how they rode are they trained on how they dressed but I want to discover more about what their own experiences were like here on the fringes of the Roman Empire and to do that I'm visiting a place where you can always disappear back into the Roman past it's a fresh and visceral it's called vin de Landa and it's one of the most important archaeological sites in Britain it was a Roman military fort which was in use for centuries in fact there were nine different forts here all built one on top of another when digging began here in the 1970s it was discovered that the deep levels were amazingly well-preserved because they were waterlogged and contained very little oxygen this lack of oxygen meant that organic objects which usually decay in the ground had been preserved things like wood bone and leather survived in almost perfect condition at Vindolanda it seems like picked just about the worst day to visit this digging season torrential rain has meant that the excavations have been abandoned that doesn't matter because I'm most interested in seeing some of the small finds that have emerged from this extraordinary site over the years and to see what these fines from Vindolanda can tell us about the cavalry and their lives on the northern frontier I'm on my way to the museum stores to meet curator Barbara Bailey Barbara it's always astonishing to see the preservation of things like leather Vindolanda what was this leather object well we know by kind of looking at all the different fragments that it's actually part of a horse's sham fron which is a ceremonial head mask that they wear and if you start to look at this piece here is the kind of telltale shape of the horses ear and is this possibly the edge of an early whole exactly yeah so that would be where the horses I would come through and you would have something like a decorated I'm kind of eye guard yeah and so it was highly decorated a beautiful beautiful piece this find and several others have allowed the team here to reconstruct a cavalry sham from the incredible preservation at Vindolanda also led to one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century during one of the first digging seasons here in 1973 the site director Robin Burley was working in one of the deep levels when he discovered small fragments of wood with writing on them what he'd found were roman writing tablets letters accounts and official documents from the fort once out of the grain the writing began to disappear almost immediately so they've sent a specialists he faded off of them with infrared cameras which revealed the vanished text these documents have given us a unique insight into life on the northern frontier but what's often overlooked is that many of them are written by or about the cavalrymen in one famous letter which seems to be an intelligence report for vendor lenders cavalrymen we learn about the enemy they had to face the Britain's are unprotected by Armour there are very many cavalry the cavalry do not use swords nor do the wretched Britons mount in order to throw javelins [Applause] after years of research Barbara and her team are also starting to discover personal stories about individual cavalry men from the Vindolanda letters and you've got some reproductions here a couple of the wonderful Vindolanda letters what are these referring to well the letters and the writing tablets give us such a good idea of the actual people here both of these are accounts and they talk about a single individual his name is tag amass and he's from the VAR Julian cavalry and his name is just a crossed here and it is very difficult but the interesting thing about this particular letter is it says tag amasses companion now if that was a man you would just put his name so the idea is that it was his common-law wife because at this period on the site they weren't allowed to marry this one here again talks about tag amass and he's right here and he's effects hilarious which means that he is the standard bearer for the VAR Dooley cavalry yeah and here he's purchasing Lance's common cavalry equipment so it's not hugely surprising but his story goes further because not only do we have him in the tablets but we also have him on this amphora handle so you can just see t AG om a s tag amass whatever was in here and we think it was olive stood and wine he didn't trust his fellow officers because he had to write his name on his precious imported food yeah so you start to build up these pictures that he was married that he you know he has his friends and what he's ordering and what he's doing also that he likes his his food he's got enough money to import food that normally grow in Northumberland so you starting really build up this lovely picture of who these people are I've been trying to get a better picture of the Roman cavalry and it's here at Vindolanda that I feel that it's finally coming into focus that we have this wonderful evidence written evidence of precisely which troops were garrisoned here but actually were homing right in and we have the name of this one man who we know is a standard bearer for his troop for much of the Roman occupation the cavalry at places like Vindolanda were here to suppress our ancient ancestors but over the centuries of Roman rule that relationship evolved and they began to put down roots 30 miles south of Hadrian's Wall at Ben Chester County Durham archaeologists are working at the site of another cavalry fort and they're finding evidence that it wasn't just cavalry men living here but their families too [Music] the team is from Durham University and they're excavating the fort's Cemetery they're facing an uphill struggle the soil conditions mean that little survives in this ground leading the dig is dr. David pets one of the troubles we've been fighting is the soils really acid so normally when you're looking for a cemetery you would find bones that tell you it's a grave instead we just have things like this six foot long pits which most of time contain it's virtually nothing in them but by chance in one corner of the trench the team has found a skeleton that has survived the acid soil conditions it might be able to give the team some insights into the people who lived here we can see some of the bones survived bits of a skull bits of the duel now a jaw you can see what we will be able to do is get a lot of information from the teeth and we can look at the chemistry of those teeth and they tell us quite a lot of information so they'll tell us about things like their diet so a proportion of meat and vegetables which these people are eating that's quite interesting because you know we might expect the soldiers type better diets than the civilians it's also potential to tell us even broadly where these people came from so is it someone who's born and brought up here or is it someone who came from another part of Roman Britain or elsewhere in the Roman Empire so by looking at the teeth doing doing stuff back in the lab we can draw remarkable out of information even from a quite poorly preserved skeleton like this these results will be another useful piece of the jigsaw puzzle to help archaeologists understand who was living at this fort in late Roman Britain in another area of the site one of the archaeologists has made a discovery which adds weight to the idea that the fort contained not only the soldiers but their families it's a child's grave so we've now got two beads have come out of this little feature but I think because we're getting this little group of beads suggest it's a child's grave even though no bones have survived here this pit is most likely to have been a grave and these beads would have accompanied the child's body what's clear here is we've got all part societies so it's not just for soldiers but it's their children we've got children's Gracie assume with their wives you've got adult grades with with female jewelry the fort like this it's not just isolated soldiers in the middle of nowhere they're the people who make the Empire bigger and protect it but they're marrying with the people who generations ago they actually conquered and it's really lovely to think about how these populations works in Carlisle the final preparations are being made for the big show but having 30 riders altogether is a unique opportunity for the archaeologists and so they've decided to ask Alan and his riders to test out some of their theories about the cavalry that go beyond when the tournament itself they want to try to answer a key question about how the cavalry fought and discover if a certain battle formation they've read about in ancient literature can actually be performed in real life I'm joining archaeologist and event organizer bill Griffith to see if Allen and his team can provide some answers hey what are the main research questions for you then what would you really like to find out today no one's done this before put 30 riders in for KITT in the field really no no one's done it well the Romans did yeah not since and with the proper authentic kit with the stirrup 'less saddles all these kinds of things and we just want to see if we can learn some new data about how these coverman rode what it was like to ride in the unit or it's like to ride in formation bill and the other archaeologists want to see how the Roman cavalry might have attached their British enemies there are some literary texts describe Roman cavalry trill but all we've got is the words so at the moment we've been interpreting the words now are we interpreting them right actually once you have the horses with you you can start to play about and say well actually you can do this you can't do that Allen and his riders are going to attempt to create a battle formation called the the wedge the archaeologists think this might have been used to attack enemy formations sowing panic in their ranks so we're now assembling the kunio which great yeah see how that goes fantastic this is a battle formation I mean there's a sometimes the cavalry described the kinase which is the wedge so it's really it's just form a triangle to break into their active enemy the riders carefully form up in ranks to create a wedge shape [Music] so this is the wedge formation this is the kunio hands room yeah and they're holding it together it's amazing Vail yeah just first time they're out and they've done it nailed it fantastic it proves it's possible yeah it's quite terrifying actually we're at the side of it imagine that coming straight at you yeah you know that will be a terrifying sight and you know your first instinct is going to be to run away Allen and his team have managed to recreate something that hasn't been seen for over 1,600 years and the academics have been able to prove that it was easily possible for the Roman cavalry to attack their enemies using the kinase or wedge formation but the cavalry weren't just the most feared soldiers in the Roman army from ancient literature we also know they were the best paid extra fee even the citizen soldiers of the legions to see for myself what their huge pay packets were spent on I'm back at Chester's Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall I'm meeting Frances Macintosh of English heritage he's been reexamining the archeological collection at Chester's which was dug up in the Victorian era the objects in the museum here really highlight just how wealthy and powerful the Roman cavalry were in Britain so these objects were excavated more than a century ago that's right so John Clayton inherited the big mansion house at Chester's in the 1830s and he had just as rumor fought in his front garden so he excavated there nearly every year until he died in 1890 so we've got all of these fantastic objects from those excavations but you've been taking another look at them haven't you scholarships changed a huge amount in that amount of time we've learned a lot it's been a lot more finds which give us different information so one of the things related to the cavalry that we were able to discover is that these beads here that I've always been deemed to be kind of jewelry we now know from fines they've been strong on harness so you have made new discoveries by revisiting these old fine exactly so even though I wasn't excavating you know I was kind of excavating the boxes and finding out new things it's really exciting and these things like though they would hang down of course that's right so these are some of the pendants that we had this one's a really nice example because it has the hook pretty much complete and if you see the design there is two dolphin it would have been very bright and gold and hanging down off the harness and jingling yeah and glittering catching a Sun makes the horseman very impressive and sound very impressive when they're advancing now this is a beautiful thing what's there is so this is a decorative element it's a stud you need to see it close-up to get the real idea of the amazing decoration it's absolutely gorgeous it would have been mounted on harness and imagine the metal is bright and shiny and it's got this milfy or a enamel so this is gloss that's right so in those rods that are twisted together to make the pattern then stretched and stretched until it's tiny and then you salami slice it and set it in that wonderful gorgeous and the other Romans and other people in Britain would appreciate how expensive that was and the work that had gone into that it's all about the image and projecting the fact that your recovery when you're paid more you can afford to decorate your horse a little bit amazing wouldn't they yeah [Music] it is the afternoon of the big show in Carlisle all the training and practice the modern riders have put in is going to be put to the test in front of a paying audience and for the archaeologists it's a unique opportunity to see the hair theories and assumptions put to the test events that that's always useful because however much theorizing you do about things once you actually see what can be done with a horse and a rider you have a much better idea of what the ancient texts are saying that's it's so much more valuable backstage the riders are readying the horses and checking and rechecking their kit as the audience begins to stream into the arena I'm going behind the scenes to see the final preparations for myself Gary Nigel you nearly ready yeah it's been really hard road I think it surprised us all you know just just how tough it was but yeah hasn't stopped yet way No so we're minutes away aren't we yes I believe so I've lost all track of time I'm just waiting for the order is it an incredible sense of excitement just bubbling under the surface here and the riders are just about to set off into the arena I'm going to go in and take my seat cannot wait I'm going to be watching the action unfold in the company of Bill Griffith who along with the other experts here has spent years waiting for this moment environment times these events were competitions where riders battled it out the glory and reward in front of the Emperor and the crowd and to recreate some of that atmosphere today the crowd has been split into two teams red and blue [Applause] yes my team definitely not the first part of the show you sees the Legionaries of the urban street guard strutting their stuff then it's time for Allen Nigel and all 30 riders to take center stage so they're walking retreat round the arena at the moment what are they going to be doing well you're going to see them start to form the Cantabrian circles and then bring out their the best of the troops to demonstrate their prowess skill apart in front of their ever a competing players favor Nigel and the other elite riders take their positions for the first part of the competition 3 occurring red shields and 3 occurring blue shields they'll try to score points of their team by hitting their opponent shields with blunted javelins we should have a [Music] [Applause] [Music] who the training and hard work has paid off and even wearing these restrictive face masks the team manages to hit their targets at speed [Applause] next is the charge which is like a medieval chaste but with thrown javelins [Music] oh it's close and finally the pursuit one rider attacks and then is chased down by the victim [Music] [Applause] and as a final send-off to the crowd the full treat of 30 Roman cavalry riders galloped past in unison it's an or inspiring sight and a reminder that these tournaments were used to demonstrate Roman power to our ancient ancestors and Phil have you learned from this weekend just a huge amount I mean one just actually how relatively easy some of the drill is that we thought wasn't how quickly Reuters can pick up some material how important to this training is spectacle is the training of the army there was a lot of debate is it just a show for the Emperor you can see by going through it it's really about developing the horsemanship of the soldiers for battle for contact with the enemy and also it does give you that real sense doesn't it of that imperial power of might and majesty rejecting the imperial rome [Music] so there's a lot of people sticking around after the show itself and learning more about the Roman era and what a fantastic way to engage your wider audience with this period in our history and the archaeologists themselves have learned a lot from this experience for me I find it impressive but I also found it quite intimidating there is that power of the Roman army brought to life but it's a symbol of oppression as well it's a really interesting double-edged sword I think for the re-enactors archaeologists and audience alike this has been a unique opportunity to relive something that no one's seen for over 1,600 years this restaging of a roman tournament has been a magnificent spectacle but actually it's more than that it's about research as well because it's a lively archeologist to test out some of their ideas and informing everything that's been achieved by this project has been the tireless work of historians and archaeologists that digs museums and in the archives each new clue they've unearthed has helped bring the Roman cavalry back to life and return them to their rightful place at the center of the story of Roman Britain but it's a process that's not over yet across Hadrian's Wall and beyond new discoveries will continue to build our knowledge of these forgotten horsemen [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Das Erbe Roms

Views: 106,706

Rating: 4.844811 out of 5

Keywords: Hadrians Wall, Roman Cavalry, Britain, Horseman, Ancient, Army, Ala, Turma

Id: TUWZtt8tFIw

Length: 59min 3sec (3543 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 17 2017