Rooted
in the future
A cultural ecology of the Sycamore Gap tree
A
s news of the felling of
the Sycamore Gap tree
spread online, there was
an outpouring of shock
and grief for the perceived
loss of a landmark that had long
featured prominently in the popular
imagination. Its highly photogenic
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048-050_CA405_SycEnviron_MESC2CH.indd 48
placement adjacent to Hadrian’s Wall
made it seem like an integral part of
the Roman landscape, and initial
reactions described the felling as an
‘irreplaceable loss’ and an ‘attack on
nature’, concluding ‘the tree is gone.’
We contend, however, that the tree
still lives, as the Roman wall itself
still lives, although in ruins. We
will discuss below the connection
between the tree and Hadrian’s Wall,
and how this unfortunate event can
encourage us to embrace change and
transformation in nature and culture.
The origins of Hadrian’s Wall will
be familiar to many CA readers: the
PHOTO: Clementp.fr, CC BY-SA 4.0
Do archaeological remains represent static monuments, or do they remain ‘alive’
in their natural and cultural landscapes? Emily Hanscam and Cornelius Holtorf
discuss how Hadrian’s Wall and the Sycamore Gap tree can encourage us to rethink
the relationships between humanity, nature, and the planet.
DECEMBER 2023
19/10/2023 22:02
SYCAMORE GAP
PHOTOS: E Hanscam
England and Scotland. However,
archaeological research has shown that
Hadrian’s Wall is better understood
as a complex of structures meant to
observe and manage the movement of
people; alternatively (or additionally),
it stood as a symbol of Roman power
and authority in this distant region of
the Empire. The Wall was, therefore,
about far more than ‘barbarians’ versus
‘Romans’ – yet, because of the strength
of the popular narratives surrounding
the ‘border’ fortifications, many
visitors continue to experience the
remains of the Wall in this way. Such
views encourage a static, unchanging
public perspective of the remains,
but we argue that Hadrian’s Wall is a
living monument with real relevance
to modern socio-political narratives,
often being drawn into discussions
surrounding modern borderlands
and ideas of national identity
(see, for example, E Hanscam and
B Buchanan’s recent paper in Antiquity,
‘Walled in: borderlands, frontiers,
and the future of archaeology’).
SIGNS FROM THE SOIL
OPPOSITE Sycamore Gap, before its eponymous tree was felled this September.
TOP Hadrian’s Wall between Sycamore Gap and Milecastle 37.
ABOVE A living wall: Hadrian’s Wall west of Housesteads.
fortifications were built almost 2,000
years ago, during the reign of the
emperor of the same name, as part
of a Roman frontier network that
stretched more than 7,500 miles across
Europe, the Near East, and northern
Africa. Spanning Britain at the Tyne/
Solway isthmus, this wall would
operate on and off as the Empire’s
northern boundary for the next three
centuries. Although, as Richard
Hingley points out in his Hadrian’s
Wall: a life (see ‘Further reading’
on p.50), the end of official Roman
administration in Britain in the 5th
century, and the conclusion of the
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Wall’s life as a Roman frontier, was ‘only
one form of ending’. From the early
medieval period onwards people have
used the Wall – ‘recreating it as a vital
element of the landscape of northern
England for their own times and
telling many different stories that
have kept its remains alive’.
Today, Hadrian’s Wall stands as an
archetypal ancient border, commonly
perceived as a hard boundary between
‘civilisation’ and ‘outsiders’, with
surrounding popular narratives
so strong that there is an ongoing
misperception that the Wall equates
to the modern-day border between
The Wall’s significance was formally
recognised by UNESCO in 1987,
when it was inscribed as a World
Heritage Site, and since 2005 it has
formed part of the transnational
property ‘Frontiers of the Roman
Empire’, which runs through several
countries. As with many archaeological
monuments, the Wall is still partly
buried underground, something that
is a source of its integrity as a heritage
site. While the Wall is often perceived
as a monument of conflict and military
defence, the purpose of the UNESCO
World Heritage list is to advance global
peace and security – which sounds
like something of a paradox. The
Sycamore Gap tree may be able to
resolve that paradox.
The tree may no longer stand
tall, but the ecosystem of the stump
and what lies below still maintain
integrity too. In The Hidden Life of ➡
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Trees, Peter Wohlleben writes that
there are more life-forms in a handful
of soil than there are people on the
planet. This ecological context is
resilient because it can regenerate
and renew itself. The felled tree may
regenerate from seeds and saplings (not
to mention genetic cloning). The very
stump still lives and may sprout again.
In that sense, as nature has its way,
the tree is neither ‘irreplaceable’, nor
in fact really ‘gone’ or ‘lost’. Indeed,
if seeds and saplings are taken and
planted elsewhere, the future may see
more than one ‘Sycamore Gap tree’,
and in several locations.
Nature is about realising potential
and continuous transformation,
just as much as it is about the
fight for survival. In the age of the
current climate crisis, with some
talking of an approaching planetary
emergency, as humans we may be
well advised to learn from natural
processes of change and from lifeforms displaying resilience in the
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048-050_CA405_SycEnviron_MESC2CH.indd 50
face of transformation. Human
societies also have to change from
one generation to the next, and even
individual human beings change with
time. This link with natural processes
can be seen in the growing trend in
burial practices for humusation: a
sustainable process of regenerating
and returning to the earth billed as
‘the ecological alternative to burial and
cremation’. As Robin Wall Kimmerer
once put it, ‘The happy truth is that
when I am an ancestor, I will be soil.
Human become humus.’
A LIVING MONUMENT
As humans change, so does the cultural
heritage among which the Sycamore
Gap tree must also be included. Like
the Wall, the impact of the Sycamore
Gap tree on the popular imagination
should not be underestimated – from
the famous scene in Robin Hood:
Prince of Thieves to the inspiration
for ‘Sycamore Gap Pale Ale’ by local
brewer Twice Brewed (sampled with
pleasure by one of the authors in
2018), and everything in-between,
including countless amateur and
professional photographs. It is easy
to understand why the tree mattered,
and why its perceived loss has resulted
in a widespread sense of loss. Yet, in a
similar way to how Hadrian’s Wall is
a living monument, impacting people
and the landscape of northern
England and beyond for centuries
after the Roman period until the
present-day, so does the Sycamore Gap
Source
Dr Emily Hanscam and Professor
Cornelius Holtorf are both archaeologists
based at Linnaeus University in Kalmar,
Sweden, and members of the UNESCO
Chair on Heritage Futures.
Further reading
E Hanscam and B Buchanan (2023) ‘Walled
in: borderlands, frontiers, and the future
of archaeology’, Antiquity 97: 1004-1016,
https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.14.
R Hingley (2012) Hadrian’s Wall:
a life (Oxford University Press,
ISBN 978-0199641413).
C Holtorf (2018) ‘Embracing change: how
cultural resilience is increased through
cultural heritage’, World Archaeology
50(4): 639–650, https://doi.org/10.1080/
00438243.2018.1510340 (open access).
R Wall Kimmerer (2021) ‘Essay: Building
Good Soil’, in J Hausdoerffer et al. (eds)
What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to
Be? (University of Chicago Press, ISBN
978-0226777436), pp.182-184.
P Wohlleben (2016) The Hidden Life
of Trees (Greystone Books, ISBN
978-0008218430).
PHOTOS: C Holtorf (top) / M Zeutschel (right)
Growing vegetation transforms an
archaeological site at Gamla Skogsby, Öland,
Sweden (ABOVE), and a tree stump (LEFT)
regenerates on the remains of an Iron Age
house at the same location.
tree continue to live in and impact on
our world.
It is not too wild a guess that, in the
coming years, increasing numbers of
tourists will visit the site where the
Sycamore Gap tree once stood tall. The
empty site, with vegetation sprouting
from a tree stump and its remaining
roots, may inspire thoughts about
continuous growth, regeneration,
and transformation over time. Some
of the visitors are likely to appreciate
themselves returning to earth after their
demise – transforming into the same
kind of soil left behind when a mighty
tree no longer stands.
Ultimately, such thoughts may help
encourage peace in the world, not
between different groups of peoples
but between humanity, nature, and the
planet. Understanding the ongoing
life of the Sycamore Gap tree may thus
help do justice to the current life of
Hadrian’s Wall as an inscribed UNESCO
World Heritage Site: a monument to
advancing global peace and security. ❙
DECEMBER 2023
19/10/2023 22:02