Victory at Vindolanda – Bardon Mill, Northumberland

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 425

Subscribe now for full access and no adverts

During this year’s annual excavations at the Roman auxiliary fort of Vindolanda, Jim and Dilys Quinlan from Merseyside – who have been volunteering on the site for 21 years – discovered this sandstone relief. It was found in May, in a pile of rubble that was located above an infantry barracks.

Professor Rob Collins from Newcastle University identified the figure as the Roman goddess Victory, who is believed to have been integral to success on the battlefield. It is thought that the stone would have formed part of a larger relief that once framed an inscription. The barracks on top of which it was found once featured a large ornamental arch and gate, and this relief may have been part of its decoration. The building dates to c.AD 213, just after the end of the Severan campaigns against the northern tribes, and the figure of Victory may have been chosen to reflect the end of this conflict.

The Vindolanda Trust’s curator Barbara Birley noted: ‘It is highly likely that this stone would have originally been brightly painted. We will be working with our specialists to see if any traces of the pigment remain, so for now the relief is being stored unwashed ready for that further analysis.’

After analysis, the relief will go on display in early 2026 in the Recent Finds exhibition at the Vindolanda museum.

Text: Kathryn Krakowka / Images: The Vindolanda Trust