In the beggining of the second century A. D. the famous Hadrian's wall was built in Northern England in Roman Britannia to protect Roman territory from the barbarian Pictish tribes of the north. Eight thousand soldiers from all the over the Empire served there patrolling the wall. Some of them- it seems - were from Syria and spoke Aramaic. Palmyrian Aramaic to be precise. This reveals a tombstone of a man named Barates of Palmyra-Syria mourning his late 30-year old local wife. There is an inscription in Latin and a phrase in Aramaic at the end. Aramaic on Hadrian's wall tombstone. The Latin part of the inscription reads: TO THE SPIRITS OF THE DEPARTED [AND TO] REGINA, HIS FREEDWOMAN AND WIFE BARATES OF PALMYRA [ERECTED THIS] [SHE] A CATUVELLAUNIAN [BY TRIBE], AGED 30 The Aramaic part reads RGYN' BT HRY BR'T' HBL REGINA, THE FREEDWOMAN OF BARATES, ALAS This part is written in a local variant of the Palmyrene alphabet. Palmyrene was a d...