Remains of a possible Romano – British refugee camp found at Roman Vindolanda

The exciting on-going excavations at the Roman site of Vindolanda have a habit of unearthing some of the most remarkable finds from Roman Britain, Roman letters, murder victims, the largest collection of Roman shoes from the Roman Empire to name but a few. This year the archaeologists have unearthed a new series of circular huts, built during the troubled time of Roman invasion of Scotland under the Emperor Septimius Severus (AD 208-2011). An earlier fort at Vindolanda was completely levelled for the construction of these new buildings which may number into the hundreds.  But what were they for? Roman soldiers did not build roundhouses and this has led the archaeologists at the site to consider other reasons for why the Roman army would go to such lengths to accommodate these unusual structures.

The Director of Excavations Dr Andrew Birley explained the latest theory about the buildings ‘these are remarkable structures to be found inside a Roman fort- unique in fact. They are the sort of building you might expect to find north of Hadrian’s Wall in this period, used by small farming communities. It is quite possible that what we have here is the Roman army providing for these farmers – creating a temporary refuge for the most vulnerable people from north of the Wall.  Those people may have helped to feed the army and traded with the soldiers and would have been regarded as being traitors and collaborators in the eyes of the rebellious tribes to the north. It would make a certain sense to bring them behind the curtain of Hadrian’s wall and protect them while the fighting continued as they would have had real value to the Romans  and they certainly tried to protect what they valued’.

Dr Birley went on to note that ‘It is perhaps somewhat ironic that we may have found evidence for an army, led by an Emperor who came from modern day Libya, that may have been engaged in intervening and protecting some Britons from others whilst the modern British army is engaged in Libya today’.