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| | Jonathan Freedland looks for the past behind the present. Each week, The Long View, recorded on location throughout the British Isles, takes an issue from the current affairs agenda and finds a parallel in our past.
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Keeping people apart |  Listen to Introduction listen to: the two wallsListen to conclusion
WAR AND WALLS
In 122 the new Roman Emperor Hadrian made a tour of Britain. He decided to consolidate power. He commanded that a frontier was created across the island, "separating the Romans from the barbarians". And so, with some 4 million tonnes of stone and mortar, and a remarkable 5 or 6 years to build, the eighty mile wall was constructed from Wallsend in Newcastle across the Pennines to Bowness just west of Carlisle. | | On Location | |   | | Left: Colin Shindler
Right: Kitty Fitzgerald |
Today, the great wall still snakes across moorland and countryside, but in its day there was much more to it than the stone edifice. A series of ditches were built both to the north and the south of the wall, as well as a intense military zone and numerous forts. Recent excavations have revealed the presence of ancient 'barbed wire' - an entanglement of thorns pinned into the ground before the north face. | | On Location | |   | | Left: Simon James
Right: Anoush Ehteshami
|  | | Julie Trottier |
This week the Long View visits Segedunum Museum to explore war and walls - exploring the similarities and difference between Hadrian's frontier and the controversial security barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.
Contributors:
Dr Simon James - University of Leicester
Professor Anoush Ehteshami - University of Durham
Dr Colin Shindler - SOAS, University of London
Julie Trottier - University of Newcastle and and consultant to the Quartet (US, Russia, UN and EU) on the likely impact of the barrier in Israel
Kitty Fitzgerald - writer involved in the Writing on the Wall arts project
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RELATED LINKS
Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths & Museum
Writing on the Wall
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