Above Overlooking the excavations at Vindolanda, an auxiliary fort just south of Hadrian’s Wall.

Communities in the conflict zone: Ten years of discoveries at Vindolanda

The Roman auxiliary fort of Vindolanda is best known for the remarkable cache of 1st- and 2nd-century wooden writing tablets that was found on the site in 1973, but ongoing archaeological work on the site continues to reveal a wealth of insights into both military and civilian life. From a murder mystery and evidence for a previously unknown goddess to shoes and sporting equipment, Andrew Birley takes us through some of the highlights uncovered in the last ten years.

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Current Archaeology

July 5, 2019

Since the Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimage last visited Vindolanda in 2009, three major and many minor research projects on the site (which lies just south of the Wall) have yielded an astonishing wealth of finds. Spanning the 1st century to the 9th century, these discoveries provide deeply personal (and sometimes startling) evidence about the daily lives of this frontier community. From writing tablets and gaming boards to shoes, boxing gloves, and swords, the deposition of these diverse objects helps us to build up a sophisticated image of daily life both inside and outside the walls of the forts that occupied our site. There have been so many exciting developments that it is difficult to summa

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