The History of the Walls

Sedentary and Nomadic

We begin at around the third millennium BC in Mesopotamia. A good part of the population is already sedentary, practicing agriculture and animal husbandry. But in the more arid zones, some people continue a nomadic way of life. At that time, a 220 km long wall is built to separate the cultivated lands and the pastures used by the nomads. This wall, barely more than one meter high, is made of dry stone and is relatively fragile. It therefore probably does not have a defensive function per se, but rather serves as a delimitation or border between two ways of life. Around this same period, further east, the powerful Third Dynasty of Ur controls the Tigris-Euphrates basin. But its north-western border is regularly attacked by nomadic Amorite tribes. The king of Ur then builds a fortified wall, or possibly a set of defensive ramparts about 280 km long, linking the Tigris and the Euphrates. But Ur has other enemies, including Elam to the east who, in 2004 BC, forms a coalition and seizes the capital. The Amorite Wall then disappears without a trace. Only ancient texts mention it. If it did exist, its exact layout and composition are still unknown today. In Asia, the king of Qin finishes unifying the surrounding kingdoms, and forms the Qin dynasty in 221 BC. But in the north, nomadic Turco-Mongol tribes, called the Xiongnu, threaten. The emperor then builds a Great Wall 6 meters high, replacing old defensive walls that became obsolete. Tens of thousands of forced laborers are mobilized for the construction of the stone and clay structure. It has, on the one hand, a defensive function, and on the other hand it delimits the border between the external world, nomadic and considered barbaric, and the internal world, unified and said to be civilized. Later, the Han dynasty, after victories against the Xiongnu, extends the wall, so that in the first century AD, it is 4000 km long, linking present-day Korea to the Gobi Desert.

The Roman Limes

In the second century AD, the Roman Empire is at its peak, controlling all the coasts of the Mediterranean basin. The threat is then the peoples called barbarians, who live all around the empire. Limes are built, that is to say, sets of roads, palisades, walls, watchtowers and ditches that are adapted to the terrain, following ridges and linking rivers. But they are not continuous nor homogeneous. In 122, in the province of Brittany, the emperor Hadrian puts an end to the expansionist policy of his predecessors, and builds a wall that bears his name, isolating the Celtic peoples of the north. About 4 meters high, it is made of stone and peat and is bordered by ditches. It is 117 km long and connects the North Sea to the Irish Sea. A few years later, Hadrian’s adopted son Antoninus, after military campaigns, pushes the border further north, and builds a new wall which also bears his name. On the continent, other limes