The past two weeks we have had the pleasure of working with Ian Smith, an animal bone specialist for Oxford Archaeology North. He was tasked with completing an initial assessment of the animal bone found from last year’s excavations. During the excavations season we have post excavation volunteers who wash, dry and sort the animal bone in to context order. Ian has then been looking more closely at each context to extract more information such as: · What different types of animals were here · Identifying the different types of bones (ribs, humerus, femur, etc.) ·  Read more...

Welcome to the new format of The Vindolanda Blog! We are now only one week away from the beginning of 2018 excavations' season and the re-vamped Vindolanda Blog is just one of the many exciting new features we have in store for both Visitors and Volunteers this year. The wheelbarrows are at the ready, the first turf has already been broken, and the archaeological team is excited to start a new 5-years-long Research Excavation program. As part of the project 'Understanding Communities and Identities' we have had the chance to employ, for the 2018 excavations' season, a new Archaeological Assistant, Beth Harvey. We extend a warm welcome Read more...

Every year, roughly at the end of June, the excavations take a break for a recording week. This is usually kickstarted by our Friend’s night, an exclusive yearly event in which we unveil new features, tour the excavations with the Friends of Vindolanda and generally have a good party! During the recording week that follows, we carefully plan the buildings we have uncovered, welcome specialists who are interested in our material culture, and gather our thoughts. We have now entered the second half of our excavation season, which will end on the 22nd of September. As work continues in the trenches, here is your mid-season updates on t Read more...

Welcome back to the Vindolanda blog. The weather has been unusually hot and progress rapid. It is unusual to have to actually put water into the trenches at Vindolanda to keep the wooden buildings damp, a first in my 24 years of excavation at the site. It is perhaps unlikely to happen again soon. Enjoy, Dr Andrew Birley. From Inside the last stone fort: Marta Alberti As summer approaches and the days get warmer, Vindolanda’s excavation season enters its 5th period. Here is your monthly update on the discoveries of the volunteer excavators and the Vindolanda archaeological team. Inside the walls of the last stone Read more...

Hello everyone and welcome to your update on the Fort excavations. With periods 1 and 2, and half of period 3 under the belt, we can provide you with some new and fascinating information on the structures and finds within the SE quadrant of the last stone fort at Vindolanda. Five years ago, when we set out to excavate this area, we wished to investigate the post-Roman, 3rd and 4th century structures, as well as the early 3rd century Severan round houses. As the 5th year of our Scheduled Monument Consent rolls in, we appear on track to achieve all we had set our eyes on, and a bit more. In fact, we have pushed our excavations deeper, a Read more...

Vindolanda excavations in April 2017 The first four weeks of the excavations at Vindolanda have now finished in the final field season of the ‘Frontiers in transition project’. Two teams of 30 volunteers have stretched their minds and muscles inside the fort and below the remains of the 3rd century extramural settlement, working through bitterly cold weather, sleet, snow and high winds as well as periods of warm golden sunshine. The initial results in both areas have been very encouraging and this time we are going to start with the extramural part of the site before moving on to a full update from the fort by the end of n Read more...