|
Vindolanda
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (''castrum'') just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it originally pre-dated.British windo- 'fair, white, blessed', landa 'enclosure/meadow/prairie/grassy plain' (the modern Welsh word would be something like ''gwynlan'', and the modern Gaelic word ''fionnlann'' ld Gaelic word ''Fiondland''). Archaeological excavations of the site show it was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill in Northumberland, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, a set of wooden leaf-tablets that were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. Early accounts The first post-Roman record of the ruins at Vindolanda was made by the antiquarian William Camden, in his ''Britannia'' (1586). Occasional travellers reached the site over the next two hundred years, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vindolanda Tablets
The Vindolanda tablets were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain (they have since been antedated by the Bloomberg tablets). They are a rich source of information about life on the northern frontier of Roman Britain. Written on fragments of thin, post-card sized wooden leaf-tablets with carbon-based ink, the tablets date to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD (roughly contemporary with Hadrian's Wall). Although similar records on papyrus were known from elsewhere in the Roman Empire, wooden tablets with ink text had not been recovered until 1973, when archaeologist Robin Birley, his attention being drawn by student excavator Keith Liddell, discovered some at the site of Vindolanda, a Roman fort in northern England. The documents record official military matters as well as personal messages to and from members of the garrison of Vindolanda, their families, and their slaves. Highlights of the tablets include an invitation to a birth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robin Birley (archaeologist)
Robin Edgar Birley (19 January 1935 – 29 August 2018) was a British archaeologist. He was the Director of Excavations at the Roman site of Vindolanda and head of the Vindolanda research committee. He was the son of Eric Birley (a scholar of Hadrian's Wall) and brother of Anthony Birley. His wife Patricia Birley and son Andrew Birley are also published authors on Roman Vindolanda. Education and career Both Birley brothers lived at the site with their father Eric Birley, with Robin starting his first excavation at age 14. He was educated at Clifton College, before spending some years with the Royal Marines before returning to work at Vindolanda and becoming the Director of the Vindolanda Trust. Birley excavated extensively at the site of Vindolanda and was intimately involved in the discovery of the Vindolanda tablets in 1973 and their subsequent interpretation and publication. These are a series of wooden tablets containing handwritten script, which continue to be discovered a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanegate
The Stanegate (meaning "stone road" in Northumbrian dialect) was an important Roman road built in what is now northern England. It linked many forts including two that guarded important river crossings: Corstopitum (Corbridge) on the River Tyne in the east, and situated on Dere Street, and Luguvalium (Carlisle) on the River Eden in the west. The Stanegate ran through the natural gap formed by the valleys of the River Tyne in Northumberland and the River Irthing in Cumbria. It predated Hadrian's Wall by several decades; the Wall would later follow a similar route, albeit slightly to the north. The Stanegate should not be confused with the two Roman roads called Stane Street in the south of England, namely Stane Street (Chichester) and Stane Street (Colchester). In both these cases the meaning is the same as for the northern version, indicating a stone or paved road. The Stanegate differed from most other Roman roads in that it often followed the easiest gradients, and so tend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Birley
Anthony Richard Birley (8 October 1937 – 19 December 2020) was a British ancient historian, archaeologist and academic. He was the son of Margaret Isabel (Goodlet) and historian and archaeologist Eric Birley. Early life and education Anthony Birley was the son of the archaeologist Eric Birley. Eric bought the house next to the archeological site Vindolanda where Anthony and his brother, Robin, began to excavate the site. The brothers took part in many of the excavations there. From 1950 to 1955, Anthony studied at Clifton College, an independent school in Bristol, England. He studied classics at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a first-class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1960. He remained at the University of Oxford, and completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1966: his doctoral thesis was titled "The Roman high command from the death of Hadrian to the death of Caracalla, with particular attention to the Danubian wars of M. Aurelius and Commodus". Caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castra
In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the Latin word ''castrum'', plural ''castra'', was a military-related term. In Latin usage, the singular form ''castrum'' meant 'fort', while the plural form ''castra'' meant 'camp'. The singular and plural forms could refer in Latin to either a building or plot of land, used as a fortified military base.. Included is a discussion about the typologies of Roman fortifications. In English usage, ''castrum'' commonly translates to "Roman fort", "Roman camp" and "Roman fortress". However, scholastic convention tends to translate ''castrum'' as "fort", "camp", "marching camp" or "fortress". Romans used the term ''castrum'' for different sizes of camps – including large legionary fortresses, smaller forts for cohorts or for auxiliary forces, temporary encampments, and "marching" forts. The diminutive form ''castellum'' was used for fortlets, typically occupied by a detachment of a cohort or a '' centuria''. For a list of known castr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bardon Mill
Bardon Mill is a small village in Northumberland, within the vicinity of the ancient Hadrian's Wall. It is located around from Hexham, from Carlisle, and from Newcastle upon Tyne. Nearby landmarks include Allen Banks & Staward Gorge, Sycamore Gap, The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre and Vindolanda Roman Fort. Amenities The local pub in Bardon Mill iThe Bowes Hotel Church services alternate weekly between St. Cuthbert's Church at Beltingham and the Church of All Hallows at Henshaw, both of which are very close to the village. There is a very active Women's Institute. A leek club show is held every year, the produce from which is auctioned along with donations the day after the show. Funds are then donated to local charities. Every October, there is the Bardon Mill and Roman Empire conkers championships, which is held on the village green. Local community projects are asked to run a stall at the event to raise funds for their own or community projects. Demograph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cohors IV Gallorum Equitata
Cohors quarta Gallorum equitata ("4th part-mounted Cohort of Gauls") was a Roman auxiliary cohort containing both infantry and cavalry contingents. It was probably raised in Gallia Lugdunensis at the time of the founder-emperor Augustus (30 BC – 14 AD). It is first attested in Moesia in 75 AD and was still in Moesia Inferior in 105. It therefore probably took part in the emperor Trajan's Dacian Wars (99–106). After a brief stay in Thracia (where it is attested in 114), it was transferred to Britannia not later than 122. Its last datable attestation is in 276-82 at Vindolanda. But the ''Notitia Dignitatum'', a late Roman official document, records a ''cohors IV Gallorum'' at Vindolanda under the dux Britanniarum, the commander of ''limitanei'' (border forces) along Hadrian's Wall. The Western section of the ''Notitia'' was drawn up in the 420's but the British units must date to before 410, when the island was evacuated by the Roman army. In Britannia, the regiment was stati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on three sides; by the Scottish Borders region to the north, County Durham and Tyne and Wear to the south, and Cumbria to the west. The fourth side is the North Sea, with a stretch of coastline to the east. A predominantly rural county with a landscape of moorland and farmland, a large area is part of Northumberland National Park. The area has been the site of a number of historic battles with Scotland. Name The name of Northumberland is recorded as ''norð hẏmbra land'' in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, meaning "the land north of the Humber". The name of the kingdom of ''Northumbria'' derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the people south of the Humber Estuary. History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auxiliaries (Roman Military)
The (, lit. "auxiliaries") were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 30 BC. By the 2nd century, the Auxilia contained the same number of infantry as the legions and, in addition, provided almost all of the Roman army's cavalry (especially light cavalry and archers) and more specialised troops. The ''auxilia'' thus represented three-fifths of Rome's regular land forces at that time. Like their legionary counterparts, auxiliary recruits were mostly volunteers, not conscripts. The Auxilia were mainly recruited from the ''peregrini'', free provincial subjects who did not hold Roman citizenship and constituted the vast majority of the population in the 1st and 2nd centuries (c. 90% in the early 1st century). In contrast to the legions, which only admitted Roman citizens, members of the Auxilia could be recruited from territories outside of Roman control. Reliance on the various co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Running from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west of what is now northern England, it was a stone wall with large ditches in front of it and behind it that crossed the whole width of the island. Soldiers were garrisoned along the line of the wall in large forts, smaller milecastles and intervening turrets. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts. A significant portion of the wall still stands and can be followed on foot along the adjoining Hadrian's Wall Path. The largest Roman archaeological feature in Britain, it runs a total of in northern England. Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major ancient tourist attract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auxilia
The (, lit. "auxiliaries") were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 30 BC. By the 2nd century, the Auxilia contained the same number of infantry as the legions and, in addition, provided almost all of the Roman army's cavalry (especially light cavalry and archers) and more specialised troops. The ''auxilia'' thus represented three-fifths of Rome's regular land forces at that time. Like their legionary counterparts, auxiliary recruits were mostly volunteers, not conscripts. The Auxilia were mainly recruited from the ''peregrini'', free provincial subjects who did not hold Roman citizenship and constituted the vast majority of the population in the 1st and 2nd centuries (c. 90% in the early 1st century). In contrast to the legions, which only admitted Roman citizens, members of the Auxilia could be recruited from territories outside of Roman control. Reliance on the various c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
