Vindolanda

Vindolanda stands on a hill beside the Stanegate road in Northumberland, south of Hadrian’s Wall. The fort guarded the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth and was occupied from about 85 AD until 370 AD. Excavations show layers of timber and stone forts built one above another across the centuries. Nearby Barcombe Hill once held an Iron Age hillfort, and two farmsteads from before Roman times have been found in the area. Two standing stones called the Mare and Foal, about five kilometres west, may mark an old religious site. The name Vindolanda probably comes from a Celtic phrase meaning ‘white lawn’. The site is famous for the Vindolanda tablets, wooden leaf-tablets that are the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. They include letters from the wife of Flavius Cerialis, school exercises by his children, and troop rosters like Tablet 154 which lists 746 Tungrian soldiers. The first garrison, the First Cohort of Tungrians, arrived after Agricola’s conquest and built the first timber fort. Later the Ninth Cohort of Batavians took over, followed by the First Cohort of Tungrians again, who fought in heavy skirmishes in 117 AD. Hadrian may have stayed at Vindolanda in 122 AD while overseeing the start of the wall. Today visitors walk among the remains of Stone Fort II and the civilian settlement to the west. The visible ruins mostly date from the third and fourth centuries. A dedication to Caracalla shows the Fourth Cohort of Gauls was stationed there by 213 AD. Inscribed stones record repairs to the western gate in 223 AD and dedications to Roman gods. The fort’s deep ditches and ramparts still mark the hill’s steep slopes. Artefacts from daily life, including leather shoes and wooden tools, bring the past to life without the need for grand reconstructions.