
-
Young Turkish protesters face rude awakening in police custody
-
Pentagon chief orders gender-neutral fitness standards for combat troops
-
Michelin Guide unveils new stars for 68 restaurants in France
-
Trump confident in finding TikTok buyer before deadline
-
Wrexham reap financial rewards of Hollywood tie-up
-
Hamas issues call to arms against displacement as Israel orders new evacuations
-
Gazans flee southern city of Rafah after Israel military orders evacuation
-
Canada candidates promise less reliance on US a month before vote
-
Brathwaite quits as West Indies Test skipper, Hope takes white-ball charge
-
'No excuses' for tired Forest against Man Utd, says Nuno
-
Spain coal mine blast kills five
-
S&P 500 falls into correction as tariff fears rattle stock markets
-
England Test captain Stokes to miss early county games in fitness battle
-
Macron vows to defend science as host of UN oceans summit
-
Brain implant turns thoughts into speech in near real-time
-
Top aide to Israel's Netanyahu arrested in 'Qatargate' probe
-
Slashed US funding threatens millions of children: charity chief
-
China property giant Vanke reports annual loss of $6.8 bn
-
World economies brace for Trump tariffs ahead of deadline
-
Myanmar declares week of mourning as quake toll passes 2,000
-
Japan leads hefty global stock market losses on tariff fears
-
Yes, oui, Cannes! Glamour name eyes place in French Cup final
-
'Different energy' at Man Utd after mini-revival, says Amorim
-
Fear of aftershocks in Myanmar forces patients into hospital car park
-
Far-right leaders rally around France's Le Pen after election ban
-
Renault and Nissan shift gears on alliance
-
Hard-hitting drama 'Adolescence' to be shown in UK schools
-
Primark boss resigns after inappropriate behaviour allegation
-
Myanmar declares week of mourning as quake toll passes 2,000, hopes fade for survivors
-
Mbappe can be Real Madrid 'legend' like Ronaldo: Ancelotti
-
Saka 'ready to go' for Arsenal after long injury lay-off: Arteta
-
Aston Martin to sell stake in Formula One team
-
Three talking points ahead of clay-court season
-
French court hands Le Pen five-year election ban
-
Probe accuses ex J-pop star Nakai of sexual assault
-
Japan leads hefty global stock market losses on tariff woes
-
Saka 'ready to go' after long injury lay-off: Arteta
-
Ingebrigtsen Sr, on trial for abusing Olympic champion, says he was 'overly protective'
-
Tourists and locals enjoy 'ephemeral' Tokyo cherry blossoms
-
Khamenei warns of 'strong' response if Iran attacked
-
France fines Apple 150 million euros over privacy feature
-
UK PM urges nations to smash migrant smuggling gangs 'once and for all'
-
Thai authorities probe collapse at quake-hit construction site
-
France's Le Pen convicted in fake jobs trial
-
Chinese tech giant Huawei says profits fell 28% last year
-
Trump says confident of TikTok deal before deadline
-
Myanmar declares week of mourning as hopes fade for quake survivors
-
Japan's Nikkei leads hefty market losses, gold hits record
-
Tears in Taiwan for relatives hit by Myanmar quake
-
Venezuela says US revoked transnational oil, gas company licenses
CMSC | -0.17% | 22.425 | $ | |
RBGPF | 1.47% | 68 | $ | |
RYCEF | -2.16% | 9.7 | $ | |
SCS | -0.32% | 11.065 | $ | |
NGG | -0.47% | 65.263 | $ | |
GSK | -1% | 38.355 | $ | |
RELX | -0.24% | 50.04 | $ | |
BTI | 1.59% | 41.165 | $ | |
AZN | -1.24% | 72.885 | $ | |
RIO | -2.55% | 59.515 | $ | |
VOD | -0.96% | 9.36 | $ | |
BP | -0.61% | 33.655 | $ | |
BCC | -0.39% | 97.919 | $ | |
JRI | 0.54% | 12.94 | $ | |
BCE | -0.04% | 22.96 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.07% | 22.695 | $ |

Climate change threatens Hadrian's Wall treasures in England
Nineteen hundred years after it was built to keep out barbarian hordes, archaeologists at Hadrian's Wall in northern England are facing a new enemy -- climate change, which threatens its vast treasure trove of Roman artefacts.
Thousands of soldiers and many of their families lived around the 73-mile (118-kilometre) stone wall, which crosses England from west coast to east coast, marking the limit of the Roman Empire and forming Britain's largest Roman archaeological feature.
The wall was begun in 122 AD during the reign of emperor Hadrian and marked the boundary between Roman Britannia and unconquered Caledonia, helping to keep barbarian raiders out of the empire.
The Roman soldiers who lived there left behind not just wooden structures but the fascinating detritus of everyday life that allows archaeologists today to reconstruct how they lived in the windswept north of the empire.
They include the fort of Vindolanda, some 33 miles west of the modern day city of Newcastle upon Tyne, a Roman settlement at the original eastern end of the wall, then named Pons Aelius.
"A lot of the landscapes at Hadrian's Wall are preserved under peat bog and marsh -- very wet, very moist ground, which has protected the archaeology for almost two millennia," Andrew Birley, director of excavations and chief executive of the Vindolanda Trust, told AFP.
"But as global warming takes place, climate change takes place," he added.
The ground heats up more rapidly than the air temperature, caking the previously moist soil and letting oxygen in through the resulting cracks.
"When that oxygen gets in there, things that are really delicate, that are made of leather, textile, items of wood, crack, decay and are lost forever," said Birley.
- Under threat -
Over the years, the dramatic landscape around the wall has revealed stone and wooden structures, leather shoes and clothing, tools, weapons and even handwritten wooden tablets, feeding knowledge of what Roman life in Britain was like.
Only around a quarter of the site at Vindolanda has been excavated, and the fort is just one of 14 along Hadrian's Wall, a designated UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987 and one of Britain's best-known ancient tourist attractions.
"All of this, all this masonry, all of the ground behind me was under the ground. It was under a farmer's field 50 years ago," said Birley.
"Less than one percent of Hadrian's Wall has been explored archaeologically and a lot of that landscape is protected in this wet peat land environment and that's a landscape that's really under threat."
Behind him, dozens of Roman shoes from all genders, ages and social strata are displayed, just a small sample of the around 5,500 leather items so far found at the site alone.
Thanks to the black, peaty soil, many of the artefacts have kept a fascinating level of detail.
"They are fantastic because they've completely changed our perception of the Roman Empire the Roman army, they've changed it from being a male preserve to lots of women and children running around," he said.
"And without these artefacts surviving, we wouldn't have had that information and that's the sort of stuff that's under threat because of climate change."
- Race is on -
Events are taking place all this year to mark the 1,900 years since construction of the wall began.
Birley says the anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on how to make sure the wall and its artefacts will still be around in another 1,900 years.
"The Roman army embarked on one of the most massive construction pieces in the whole empire," he said.
"In this fantastic rural landscape all around me, they transformed it, creating Hadrian's Wall, a barrier right across the heart of the country."
Now, instead of defending Roman Britain from unconquered Caledonia to the north, the race is on between archaeologists and climate change.
"Can we find out what's happening to these sites? Can we intervene where we can to protect sites? And can we rescue material before it's gone forever?"
video-cjo/phz/pvh/ach
F.Bennett--AMWN