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Michel Wal / Wikimedia Commons The Vindolanda tablets (also known as Vindolanda Letters) are thin pieces of wood about the size of a modern postcard, which were used as writing paper for the Roman soldiers garrisoned at the fort of Vindolanda between AD 85 and 130. Such tablets have been found at other Roman sites, including nearby Carlisle, but not in as much abundance. In Latin texts, such as those of Pliny the Elder, these kinds of tablets are referred to as leaf tablets or sectiles or laminae—Pliny used them to keep notes for his Natural History, written in...

The 73-mile long Roman wall, built in AD 122 to defend the Roman Empire from hostile Celtic tribes, created a thriving economy to serve the occupying army, according to aerial surveys. Farmers, traders, craftsmen, labourers and prostitutes seized the occasion to make money from the presence of hundreds of Roman troops... The research carried out by English Heritage has revealed over 2,700 previously unrecorded historic features, including prehistoric burial mounds and first century farmsteads, medieval sheep farms, 19th century lead mines and even a WWII gun battery, sited along the 15 foot high wall which stretched from Wallsend on the...

Roman souvenir of wall found The bronze pan has the names of Roman forts on it A unique Roman "souvenir" of the building of Hadrian's Wall has been discovered. The bronze pan, dating from the second century AD, when the Romans built the dividing wall across the north of England, was found in the Staffordshire moorlands. Archaeologists are excited because the names of four forts located at the western end of Hadrian's Wall - Bowes, Drumburgh, Stanwix and Castlesteads - are engraved on the vessel. The discovery was being made public at the Institute of Archaeology in London by the...

The site of Roman Vindolanda, in the central section of Hadrian’s Wall, had over 300 years of Roman occupation, with at least nine forts and settlements built one on top of the other... was one of the main military posts on the northern frontier of Britain before the building of Hadrian’s Wall. Excavations there in 1973 uncovered writing tablets which had been preserved in waterlogged conditions in rubbish deposits in and around the commanding officer’s residence. These, and hundreds of other fragments which have come to light in subsequent excavations, are the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain, containing everything...

Literacy in the Time of Jesus Could His Words Have Been Recorded in His Lifetime? Sidebar: Writing Tablets Sidebar: Priceless Garbage How likely is it that someone would have written down and collected Jesus’ sayings into a book in Jesus’ lifetime? Several lines of evidence converge to suggest it is quite probable. The first factor to consider is how prevalent literacy was in Jesus’ time. Full literacy means being able to read and write proficiently, but degrees of literacy vary; people who can read, for example, may not be able to write. A common view is that of W.H....

On the Roman Empire’s cold and rainy northern frontier, in what is now Britian, sat the fort of Vindolanda. Beginning in 1973, excavators there began to find waterlogged tablets and fragments of tablets covered with Roman cursive writing. Once conserved and deciphered, the tablets provided rare details of the daily life and workings of the fort -- lists of necessary supplies, including bacon, oysters, and honey; a letter to a soldier from home saying that more socks, sandals, and underwear have been sent; and descriptions of the native Britons the Romans came into contact with. Among the tablets -- the...

A hoard of twenty one silver denarii has been recovered during the recent excavation of the foundations of a clay floor in a centurion's apartment of the late Antonine period (cAD180-200) at Vindolanda, northeast England. The hoard had been buried, possibly in a purse or some similar organic package which had long since rotted away, in a shallow pit within the foundation material of the floor of the structure in the middle of the room. Dr Andrew Birley, director of excavations at the site explains, "The coins were tightly packed together and several had corroded onto one another, held together...

Britain's favourite treasures, the Vindolanda Tablets, are coming home to Tynedale. The world famous wooden blocks, detailing the minutiae of life in Roman Britain, will be housed at Vindolanda, near Bardon Mill, where they were first discovered in a muddy ditch in 1973. A £4 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has made it possible to bring nine of the precious artefacts back to the Roman fort and museum, where they will go on permanent display. After the initial find, by former Vindolanda Trust director Robin Birley in 1973, around 400 of the perfectly preserved archaeological treasure chests have...

The murderous reputation of one of Britain's best-known Roman towns has been raised by the discovery of a child's hastily buried skeleton under a barrack room floor. Archaeologists at Vindolanda fort near Hadrian's Wall are preparing for a repeat of a celebrated coroner's inquest in the 1930s that concluded two other corpses unearthed near the site were "victims of murder by persons unknown shortly before 367AD". The latest discovery at the frontier settlement in Northumberland is thought to be the remains of a girl aged between eight and 10 who may have been tied up before she died. Her burial...

Writing tablets uncovered near Hadrian's Wall detail hundreds of expenses claimed by Roman officials... Five of the translated tablets contain 111 lines detailing entertainment claims at the Roman camp of Vindolanda. The items include ears of grain, hobnails for boots, bread, cereals, hides and pigs. The wooden writing tablets - which date from the 2nd Century - were discovered at Vindolanda, the Roman encampment near Hadrian's Wall in 1973... Professor Tony Birley, who translated the tablets, said they detail hundreds of expense claims and "lavish parties" held for officers... The wooden tablets, which are held at the British Museum in...

Romans were upper crust on daily bread May 21 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal WHEN it came to their daily bread, troops at a Northumberland Roman fort took no chances. Excavations at Vindolanda are revealing two massive granaries whose quality even outshone the nearby commanding officer’s quarters. The dig is also uncovering a magnificent flagged roadway next to the granaries. “The masonry of these granaries is far superior to that of the nearby commanding officer’s residence, and although some of the walls have suffered from stone robbing, others are standing to a height of around 5ft,” said director of...

This 1.5-ton, four-foot high carved stone relic shows a godlike figure standing on a bull, with a thunderbolt in one hand and a battle axe in the other. It is a representation of the Anatolian god Juppiter of Doliche, which was believed to be a favorite deity among Roman soldiers. A massive altar dedicated to an eastern cult deity has emerged during excavations of a Roman fort in northern England. Weighing 1.5 tons, the four-foot high ornately carved stone relic, was unearthed at the Roman fort of Vindolanda, which was built by order of the Emperor Hadrian between 122-30 A.D....

The Romans carried out cataract ops By Jane Elliott Health reporter, BBC News An eye stamp: the equivalent of the modern medicine label Think of the Roman legacy to Britain and many things spring to mind - straight roads, under-floor heating, aqueducts and public baths. But they were also pioneers in the health arena - particularly in the area of eye care, with remedies for various eye conditions such as short-sightedness and conjunctivitis. Perhaps most surprisingly of all is that the Romans - and others from ancient times, including the Chinese, Indians and Greeks - were also able also to...

An outing for Hadrian at the British Museum By Nigel Reynolds Last Updated: 2:48am GMT 11/01/2008 An exhibition on the Roman emperor Hadrian - the first staged anywhere in the world - is to be mounted at the British Museum this summer, replacing the First Emperor terracotta warriors show which closes in April. Negotiations over several years will see more than 200 loans from 31 countries - most of them once under the Roman yoke - being put on display in London. The British Museum’s Ralph Jackson with the bronze bust of Hadrian fished out of the Thames Though Hadrian,...

Hunting for Hadrian Published on 25/01/2007 HISTORIANS hope to unearth evidence that Roman emperor Hadrian once stayed in a fort along the magnificent wall bearing his name. Archaeologists will be digging along Hadrian’s Wall this summer in an attempt to confirm speculation about why and when it was built. They hope their work at Vindolanda in Northumbria will prove that the emperor once stayed there on a visit to the wall, as well as unlocking secrets about the Roman army and people’s political and social lives. The 73-mile stone barrier – stretching east to west from the River Tyne to...

Spectacular brooch find may 'unlock secrets of Hadrian's Wall' Publisher: Jon Land Published: 17/05/2006 - 12:08:01 PM Hadrian's Wall A 'spectacular' small brooch has been uncovered at a Roman fort that may reveal secrets about the men that built Hadrian's Wall. The discovery of the legionary soldier's expensive and prestigious cloak brooch has excited archaeologists in Northumberland. Experts have discovered that the brooch belonged to soldier Quintus Sollonius who would have been stationed at the forefront of the Roman empire 2,000 years ago. Historians are continuing to examine the artefact and believe it could reveal more secrets behind the men...

The archaeological season has begun at the Roman site of Vindolanda, bringing in volunteers from all over the world. Jamie Diffley went along to ask why they dig it.Pressed down in the clay, almost completely covered by the dirt, lies an object. Could be a piece of Roman pottery, perhaps some glass. To the untrained eye it could just be a piece of ordinary rubble. "It is ordinary rubble," says archaeologist Andrew Birley, loading it into a wheelbarrow, which will then be dumped by the side. Unlike me Andrew does have a trained eye. Indeed he has two. They're trained...