going places: Vindolanda

Today we went to Hadrian's wall and the edge of the Roman empire as it existed 2000 years ago.

Love this photo of the kids loving Vindolanda

By the time he became Emperor in 117AD Hadrian chose not to continue expanding the Roman Empire he inherited, but instead focussed on consolidating its boundaries. He visited Britain in 122AD, and ordered a wall to be built over the 74 miles stretching between the Solway Firth in the West and the River Tyne in the east. He did this to separate his Roman people from the Scottish Barbarians in the North that had proven so difficult to conquer.

Roman occupation of Britain began long before Hadrian's time, with Julius Caesar's initial invasion of Southern England in 55BC. At this time the British Isles, like much of mainland Europe, was inhabited by Celtic tribes, loosely united by a similar language and culture but nevertheless each distinct. Despite being victorious in battle, Caesar withdrew back to Rome, but not before establishing treaties and alliances with the Celtic people. Thus was the beginning of some 400 years of Roman occupation of Britain.

The Vindolanda fort we visited today was one of the Roman's most northern military strongholds and was built some 60 years before Hadrian's Wall. The ruins which you see below are of the final of a string of forts built on the site between the first and third centuries AD. Beneath it lie up to 12 earlier forts, including ones made from both stone and timber, with the earliest dating back to 80AD.

As it stands today and an artist's impression of Vindolanda 2000 years ago

So, why so many forts? Vindolanda was inhabited on and off for over 300 years, during this time forts were knocked down for renovation and expansion. When garrisons moved, the forts they left behind were largely destroyed so they couldn't be used by hostile forces. The new garrison would lay turf and clay on the old ruins, and then build up again from there.

Over 300 years of occupation, parts of the fort site were built up as high as 20 feet over the original AD80 levels. In the waterlogged anaerobic environment the buried ruins didn’t decay and a huge number of artefacts that would normally have long disintegrated have been found at Vindolanda, including leather shoes, wooden tools and the famous Vindolanda writing tablets that provide such an incredible insight into Roman life almost 2000 years ago.