Stories from the Frontier: Bridging Past and Present at Hadrian’s Wall

Abstract

Abstract A corn modius, excavated in 1915 at Carvoran Roman fort, survives as an enduring testament to the memory sanctions applied to the emperor Domitian after his death. Domitian’s name has been hammered out, even though the rest of the engraved text – which reveals the capacity of this measuring vessel – has been preserved. Taking this case study as its springboard, this article reflects on how artefacts act as battlegrounds for the parallel processes of commemoration and censorship. It exemplifies, moreover, how a modern video-game for school-aged children which Stocks co-designed about Vindolanda, an Imperial-era Roman fort at Hadrian’s Wall, can serve a similar function. By translating the physical realities of that site into virtual images, and challenging players to solve a fictional murder mystery within this simulated environment, the game creates a new means through which students might be led into the past: it allows them to co-create history by selecting narrative paths and engaging intermedially with ancient Vindolanda. Far from being all ‘fun and games’, this process is especially effective as a pedagogical tool: players experience history not as readers, spectators, or listeners, but as visitors, endowed with first-person access to the stories and places of Britain’s Roman past.