2013 marks the 1800th year since the last fort was built by the Fourth Cohort of Gauls at the site of Roman Vindolanda, also known as Chesterholm. It is also the fifth year I travelled to this fort for a two-week session as one of the hundreds of volunteer excavators each season. With at least nine forts, both wooden and stone, spanning over three hundred years, the initial settlements of Vindolanda predate Hadrian’s Wall (built in AD 122). Visitors to the site are often struck by the physical extent of the fort and its civilian town, the vicus. Although Vindolanda lies a few miles to the south of the Wall, it remained an extremely important military centre in the post-Hadrianic era, housing auxiliary (i.e. generally non-citizen) units of infantry and cavalry and guarding the old frontier, the east-west Stanegate Road.
[see the full report: PDF file Vindolanda Roman Fort 2013
