Robin Birley was formerly the Director of Excavations at the Roman site of Vindolanda; he set out to excavate the fort of Vindolanda and its civilian settlements in 1970, taking over from his father Eric Birley. He has over 50 years of excavation experience on the site, over 30 of which have been as Director of the Vindolanda Trust. He now heads the Vindolanda Research Committee. This is, therefore, a book written by someone who knows the site very well.
This fragment of a clear glass bowl has a very colourful gladiator scene painted on it. This bowl originated in Cologne and was imported to Vindolanda.
A collection of about 750 pieces of textiles have been preserved and discovered at Vindolanda. They represent one of the main industries of the Roman era in Britain and also have rarity value. The textiles items on display include a lady's wig made from hairmoss, which is a natural plant that grows near Vindolanda and looks like auburn hair when it's new and woven together. There is also a very rare centurian's helmet crest made of the same plant, as well as a hairnet made of very fine woven textile, similar to a crocheted hairnet. Most of the items are actually just fragments - the only complete artefact is a child's sock.
This collection of objects includes: a mason's trowel, which has a wooden handle and the pointed metal end (it is still dirty from a day's use); a complete hammer with a metal head and wooden shank; a whole wagon axle; red shovels; and other smaller objects such as a needle case with graded needles inside and a little wooden comb in a leather case. According to the Vindolanda Museum website, the rare wooden objects also include massive building timbers, water pipes and pine barrel staves, as well as storage boxes, parts of furniture and tent pegs.
The anaerobic conditions of the soil at Vindolanda have conserved a large collection of leather objects used during the Roman life of the fort and garrison. It is the biggest collection of leather items found anywhere in the Roman empire - and it is being added to each year as new objects are excavated. The collection is dominated by Roman footwear - boots, shoes, sandals, slippers, bath clogs of varying different sizes and types, some of which are clearly women and children. Other artefacts include a Roman ceremonial horse chamfron and many other leather goods including buckets, bags, purses and an archer's thumb guard, as well as at least three leather military tents. About 6,000 leather pieces have been found at the site.
The Vindolanda Tablets are a collection of Roman documents, many of them fragments, dating from 90 AD to the 120s AD. There are about 1,600 fragments, which have been written in ink on wooden sheets. The writing includes private letters written by the soldiers and their families stationed at Vindolanda, as well as store lists, writing exercises and garrison strength reports.
These documents written on wood have been preserved at Vindolanda because of the special conditions at the site, where several Roman military camps have been built over a period of time one on top of the other. This layering of building materials, along with clay in the ground, has created sealed pockets deep in the ground with little oxygen circulating. These anaerobic conditions – where there is no oxidisation – means that materials such as leather, textiles, wood, plant matter and metals are very well preserved.
The first tablets were found at Vindolanda in 1973 and excavators have been finding batches of tablets ever since when working at the right anaerobic levels. In the early 1980s the Vindolanda Trust decided that it was in the best interest of the tablets that they go to the British Museum, although the Vindolanda Museum will be in a position to put some of the tablets back on display from March 2011, following funding and a refurbishment.
Earlier this month 
