Our Roman HERITAGE

They may have departed 1,600 years ago, but we can still feel the mark of the Romans throughout our land

- TANYA PEAREY

It’s not just fortifications such as Hadrian’s Wall that survive from the Roman occupation – we’re still travelling on roads they built, using sanitation ideas they introduced and speaking a language they helped to form.

Amazing art

Roman occupation changed Iron Age Britain into a culturally very different society. And the new art – specifically bronze and marble sculptures often influenced by earlier Greek models – still inspires contemporary artists today. ✣ The bronze head of the Roman Emperor Marcus (right) was unearthed by a farmer ploughing his field in Northamptonshire in 1976. It’s at the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. ✣ A 1,800-year-old Roman sculpture of an eagle with a serpent in its beak, uncovered during the building of a London hotel in 2013, is now at the Museum of London.

Building boon

From the engineering marvels of aqueducts and hot baths, to the military structures of forts and walls, the Romans were master builders.