62 3 Ofa’s Dyke: a line in the landscape Dr Paul Belford Introduction Ofa’s Dyke deined the western boundary of the Kingdom of Mercia during the eighth and ninth centuries, and has been a symbol of the division between England and Wales ever since. When the modern border between Wales and Shropshire was created in 1536 it made only partial reference to the Dyke; consequently large parts of the earthwork survive in Shropshire. Although perhaps intended to deine a ‘Mercian’ identity against a Welsh one, the landscape of the borders contains elements of both. his chapter examines the historical and archaeological trajectory of the Dyke through medieval and later landscapes. Ofa’s Dyke is a linear earthwork consisting of a bank and ditch, sometimes with a counterscarp bank on the other side of the ditch; the ditch is always on the western side of the main bank. he surviving 129 kilometres of earthwork make Ofa’s Dyke Britain’s longest ancient monument and the most impressive of its kind anywhere in Europe. In the context of this book it is unusual, since the efectiveness of Ofa’s Dyke as a military installation has long been questioned. Sir Cyril Fox, who was the irst archaeologist to make a comprehensive study of the whole Dyke, concluded that ‘it was not a military barrier’ but instead marked a ‘negotiated frontier’. 1 Subsequent studies have emphasised its symbolic role as a barrier observing and controlling movement, and as a monumental statement of political identity, 2 or as a short-term response to threats (real or imagined) from the kingdom of Powys. 3 More recent work has understood Ofa’s Dyke in the context of hegemonic state formation, again emphasising the political and ideological rationale for its construction over any defensive or quasi-military role it may have had. 4 1 C. Fox, Ofa’s Dyke (London: British Academy, 1955), p. 279. 2 F. Noble, Ofa’s Dyke Reviewed, ed. Margaret Gelling, British Archaeological Reports (British Series) 114 (Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1983), pp. 83-86. 3 D. Hill and M. Worthington, Ofa’s Dyke (Stroud: Tempus, 2003), pp. 108-110. 4 D. J. Tyler, ‘Ofa’s Dyke – a historiographical appraisal’, Journal of Medieval History, 37 (2011), pp. 158-160); K. Ray and I. Bapty, Ofa’s Dyke: landscape and hegemony in eighth-century Britain (Oxford: Oxbow, 2016), pp. Offa's Dyke: a line in the landscape by Paul Belford, in Fortress Salopia (edited by Tim Jenkins and Rachel Abbiss), Solihull: Helion (2017), pp. 60-81.