Vindolanda

13/06/2021

Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort called the castrum, just south of Hadrian's Wall in Northumbria, northern England.

The fortification was built in the late 1st century after the conquest of northern Britain, and archaeological excavations showed that it was rebuilt many times.

Origins & History

Vindolanda, as a fort for auxiliary troops, was built by order of Gneo Giulio Agricola (40 AD-93 AD) in AD 79. C., and served to protect Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth.

The first post-Roman record of the ruins at Vindolanda was made by the antiquarian William Camden (1551-1623), in his Britannia of 1586.

Occasional travellers reached the site over the next two hundred years, and the accounts they left predate much of the stone-stealing that has damaged the site. The military Thermae was still partly roofed when Christopher Hunter (1675-1757) visited the site in 1702 and in about 1715 an excise officer named John Warburton (1682-1759) found an altar there, which he removed.

In 1814 the first real archaeological work was begun, by the Rev. Anthony Hedley (1777-1835).

Several names for the site are used in the early records, including "Chesters on Caudley", "Little Chesters", "The Bower" and "Chesterholm" but the altar found in 1914 confirmed that the Roman name for the site was Vindolanda, which had been in dispute as one early source referred to it as Vindolana.

In the ruins of this fort, tablets were discovered written in ancient Roman cursive from which many interesting details emerge about the life of the garrisons in the border areas. This garrison was made up of auxiliary infantry or cavalry, not members of Roman legions.

From the beginning of the 3rd century, this was the Cohors IV Gallorum equitata also known as the Fourth Cohort of Gaul.

It had been presumed that this title was, by this time, purely nominal, with auxiliary troops being recruited locally but an inscription found in a recent season of excavations suggests that native Gauls were still to be found in the regiment and that they liked to distinguish themselves from British soldiers.

The inscription reads: CIVES GALLI DE GALLIAE CONCORDES QUE BRITANNI

A translation of this is: "The troops from Gaul dedicate this statue to the goddess Gallia with the full support of the British-born troops".

First Fortifications

The earliest Roman forts at Vindolanda were built of wood and turf and the remains are now buried as much as 13 ft deep in the anoxic waterlogged soil. There are five wooden forts, built and demolished one after another.

The first, a small fort, was probably built by the 1st Cohort of Tungrians about 85 AD and by about 95 AD this was replaced by a larger wooden fort built by the 9th Cohort of Batavians, a mixed infantry-cavalry unit of about 1,000 men.

That fort was repaired in about 100 AD under the command of the Roman prefect Flavius Cerialis. However, when the 9th Cohort of Batavians left in 105 AD, their fort was demolished.

The 1st Cohort of Tungrians returned to Vindolanda, built a larger wooden fort and remained here until Hadrian's Wall was built around 122 AD, when they moved, most likely to Housesteads Roman Fort. However, from 208 to 211 AD, there was a major rebellion against Rome in Britain, and the Emperor Septimius Severus (146 AD-211 AD) led an army to Britannia to cope with it personally.

The old stone fort was demolished, and replaced by an unconventional set of army buildings on the west, and an unusual array of many round stone huts where the old fort had been. Some of these circular huts are visible by the north and the southwest walls of the final stone fort.

The Roman army may have built these to accommodate families of British farmers in this unsettled period but Septimius Severus (146 AD-211 AD) died at York in 211 AD and his sons paid off the rebels and left for Rome.

The stone buildings were demolished, and a large new stone fort was built where the huts had been, for the 4th Cohort of Gauls. It should be noted that a vicus, an autonomous village, developed west of the fort with several rows of buildings, each with several one-room chambers.

A stone altar found in 1914 proves that the settlement was officially a vicus and that it was named Vindolanda. To the south of the fort is a thermae, that would have been used by many of the individuals on the site. However, the later stone fort, and the adjoining village, remained in use until about 285 AD, when it was largely abandoned for unknown reasons.

Excavation

In the 1930s, the house at Chesterholm where the museum is now located was purchased by archaeologist Eric Birley (1906-1995), who was interested in excavating the site. His sons, Robin (1935-2018) and Anthony (1937-2020), and his grandson, Andrew Birley (1974), have continued the excavations to this day.

They are undertaken each summer, and some of the archaeological deposits reach depths of six metres.

The anoxic conditions at these depths have preserved thousands of artefacts, such as wooden writing tablets and over 160 boxwood combs, 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.

A study of spindle whorls from the north-western quadrant has indicated the presence of spinners of low and high status in the fort in the 3rd and 4th century AD.

Along with ongoing excavations and excavated remains, a full-size replica of a section of Hadrian's Wall in both stone and turf can be seen on the site.

Nearly 2000 year old Roman boxing gloves were uncovered at Vindolanda in 2017 by the Vindolanda Trust experts led by Dr Andrew Birley (1974). It's suggested that, based on their difference from gladiator gloves, warriors using this type of gloves had no purpose to kill each other.

These gloves were probably used in a sport for promoting fighting skills and the gloves are currently displayed at Vindolanda's museum.

Museum

The Vindolanda site museum, also known as Chesterholm Museum, conserves and displays finds from the site. It's set in gardens, which include full-sized reconstructions of a Roman temple, a Roman shop, a Roman house and Northumbrian croft, all with audio presentations.

Exhibits include Roman boots, shoes, armour, jewellery and coins, infrared photographs of the writing tablets and, from 2011, a small selection of the tablets themselves, on loan from the British Museum.

2011 saw the reopening of the museum at Vindolanda, and also the Roman Army Museum at Magnae Carvetiorum, refurbished with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.


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