Vindolanda (Chesterholm) was a Roman auxiliary fort on the Stanegate road just south of Hadrian's Wall, occupied from ca. 80 CE through at least the early 5th century. The site saw at least nine successive forts and associated vici, with timber phases under the Flavians and Trajan giving way to stone reconstruction, including a major rebuilding ca. 300 CE under the Tetrarchy. Known garrisons include the First Cohort of Tungrians and the Ninth Cohort of Batavians in the early period, and the Fourth Cohort of Gauls later.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Vindolanda was a key garrison post controlling the Tyne–Solway isthmus before Hadrian's Wall was built, and remained an important Wall-zone fort thereafter, supporting the frontier with troops, supplies, and a substantial civilian settlement. It is internationally significant for the preservation of organic remains in its anaerobic deposits, uniquely illuminating frontier life.
Continuous excavation since the 1930s, intensively under the Birley family, has revealed multiple superimposed fort plans, the vicus with its bath-house, mansio, and shops, a Severan-era praetorium, and large assemblages of leather, wood, and textiles. The Vindolanda Tablets — nearly 2,000 ink-on-wood writing tablets dating ca. 92–105 CE, including the letters of the
Vindolanda (Chesterholm) was a Roman auxiliary fort on the Stanegate road just south of Hadrian's Wall, occupied from ca. 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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