A collection of ‘selfies’ inscribed on an ancient quarry in Cumbria has revealed for the first time the faces of the men who helped build Hadrian’s Wall.

Archaeologists discovered the faces - along with a figure of a penis - carved into the face of a long abandoned quarry at Gelt Woods, from which stone to build part of the Roman wall was hewed.

The two shallow relief busts of the men were discovered alongside written inscriptions describing the project to supply stone for the 73-mile long defensive wall, which marked the northern frontier of the Roman empire.

The new carvings found at Gelt Woods quarry earlier this week also include a shallow relief sculpture of a phallus - a common Roman symbol of good luck, no doubt intended to protect the men undertaking the dangerous task of extracting the rock.

Experts will now use digital analysis to examine the inscriptions, whose detail is hidden behind layers of natural growth, in order to glean more information about the building of Hadrian’s Wall.