Vindolanda: A window on life in the Roman Army

Join Time Team’s Guy de la Bédoyère, Vindolanda Trust Curator Barbara Birley and historian and novelist Adrian Goldsworthy to explore the realities of fort life on Rome’s northernmost frontier.
 
Vindolanda, meaning ‘white fields’ in Latin, is a Roman fort in Northumberland, just south of Hadrian’s Wall. Its fame comes from the discovery in 1973 of the Vindolanda tablets, Roman letters written on thin pieces of wood which were, at the time of the discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. They illuminate what life and society was like in and around a frontier auxiliary fort. They include, from AD 100, the earliest example of a woman’s handwriting in the Roman empire, a birthday party invitation from the fort commander’s wife, Claudia Severa, to her sister.
 
In this eye-opening talk, the speakers discuss the wider context of Vindolanda, its importance and the array of objects discovered there which show the Roman way of life in the northernmost frontier of the empire.
This event is part of the public programme supporting the exhibition Legion: life in the Roman army (1 February – 23 June 2024).