Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it pre-dated. Archaeological excavations of the site show it was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill in Northumberland, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, a set of wooden leaf-tablets that were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.
The site is a hill on the Stanegate road, with steep slopes on the north, east, and south sides. It originally had a deep dip running north-south through the centre of the hill, which was gradually filled up by successive layers of occupation. There is currently no evidence for settlement on the fortress site before the Roman period, but there was an iron-age hillfort at Barcombe Hill, 3⁄4 mile (1.3 km) to the northeast (which served as a quarry and signal station in the Roman period). Two pre-Roman farmsteads have been found in the area and two standing stones called the Mare and Foal, about 3 miles (5 km) to the west, are the remnants of a stone circle, which might have been the local religious centre. The name "Vindolanda" is probably Celtic, meaning "white lawn" or similar. An inscribed altar records a group called the Textoverdi, who may have been the native inhabitants of the area.
Archaeological excavations, inscriptions, and the tablets indicate that Vindolanda was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. The garrison consisted of a series of different infantry and cavalry auxilia units, not components of Roman legions. The first unit to be based at the site was the Cohors I Tungrorum (First Cohort of Tungrians), composed of Tungri from Gallia Belgica, led by Julius Verecundus, who seem to have arrived after Gnaeus Julius Agricola's conquest of the north and built the First Timber Fort (Period I). Vindolanda Tablet 154, a troop roster, records that the unit contained 746 men and 6 centurions, of which 295 men and 1 centurion were then at Vindolanda itself, while 335 men and 2 centurions were away at Coria (Corbridge), and 116 men and 3 centurions were away on other missions. Of the troops at Vindolanda, 15 were sick, 6 were wounded, and 10 were out of action with conjunctivitis. Around 92 AD, they rebuilt the site as the Second Timber Fort (Period II).
In the 90s AD, the Cohors I Tungrorum were replaced by the Cohors IX Batavorum (ninth Cohort of Batavians), a combined infantry and cavalry cohort of 1,000 men, composed of Batavi from the Rhine delta in Germania Inferior (modern-day Netherlands). They had the privilege of being commanded by one of their own noblemen, first Flavius Genialis and later Flavius Cerialis. Shortly after their arrival, they rebuilt the site again as the Third Timber Fort (Period III). The majority of the tablets found at Vindolanda belonged to Cerealis' archives. These include the correspondence of his wife Sulpicia Lepidina and his children's school exercises. In 104 AD, the cohort was ordered to abandon the fort in order to join Trajan's second invasion of Dacia. The fort was demolished, valuables were removed, and rubbish was burnt on bonfires. The tablets were among the items thrown on the bonfire, but a chance rain storm seems to have saved them from destruction.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it pre-dated. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a fort site from the Roman period in Britain.
Vindolanda is classified as a Roman fort — a military site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Military Bath House at Vindolanda (0.1 km), Vindolanda (Chesterholm) Roman forts, civil settlement and cemeteries, adjacent length of the Stanegate Roman road and two milestones (0.2 km), Barcombe Hill Roman Quarry (0.6 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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