Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort located just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, near the border with Scotland, guarding the Roman road from the River Tyne, to the Solway Firth, now known as the Stanegate. The garrison were auxiliary infantry or cavalry units, not components of Roman legions. The fort was originally constructed in turf and timber before Hadrian's Wall was built (in about 122 AD) and was repaired and rebuilt several times. Later, apparently after a period of abandonment when the garrison transferred to a fort on the Wall itself (probably Housesteads fort), a new stone fort was built approximately on the same site. This fort, and the civilian community abutting it – called a "vicus", remained in existence until the end of the Roman period in Britain in 410 AD. Scattered finds suggest some type of settlement, including a possible early church, well into the 5th century.

Vindolanda is famous for the finds of fragments of half-burnt wooden leaf-tablets with writing in ink containing messages to and from members of the garrison, their families, and their slaves. For example there is a famous letter written around 100 AD from Sulpicia Lepidena , the wife of the commander of a nearby fort to Claudia Severa, wife of the commandant of Vindolanda, inviting her to a birthday party. Excavations continue at the site each summer, and some of the archaeological deposits reach depths of six meters. The anaerobic conditions at these depths have preserved thousands of artifacts that normally disintegrate in the ground, thus providing an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of Roman life – military and otherwise – on the northern frontier.

Further reading

• Birley, R., Vindolanda : a Roman frontier post on Hadrian's Wall, London: Thames and Hudson, (1977)
• Birley, A., Garrison Life at Vindolanda: A Band of Brothers, Stroud: Tempus, (2002)
• Bowman, A.K., Life and letters on the Roman frontier : Vindolanda and its people, London: British Museum Press, (1998, 2003)
• Bowman, A.K. and J.D. Thomas, The Vindolanda Writing Tablets, London: The British Musum Press, (1994)
• Bowman, A.K. and J.D. Thomas, The Vindolanda Writing Tablets III, London: The British Musum Press, (2003)

External links

• The tablets are currently being digitised and made available online at http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk:8080/
• The Vindolanda Trust operates its own Web site at http://www.vindolanda.com