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 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 ...

and head of the Vindolanda research committee. He was the son of

Eric Birley Eric Barff Birley, Anthony Birley. His wife

Patricia Birley Patricia Selina Birley (née Burnham) (born 27 June 1948) is an archaeologist and was the director of the Vindolanda Trust from 2002 to 2015. Biography Birley joined the Vindolanda Trust in the 1970s as a curator and conservator. She became its ...

and son

Andrew Birley Andrew Robin Birley (born 28 October 1974) is a British people, British archaeologist and the Director of Excavations on the site of Vindolanda. He is the son of Robin Birley (archaeologist), Robin Birley and grandson of Eric Birley, who founded ...

are also published authors on Roman Vindolanda.

Education and career

Both Birley brothers lived at the site with their father

Eric Birley Eric Barff Birley, Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , hea ...

, before spending some years with the Royal Marines before returning to work at

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 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 fro ...

in 1973 and their subsequent interpretation and publication. These are a series of wooden tablets containing handwritten script, which continue to be discovered at the site. For a time this was the oldest known handwritten script in Britain, although the Bloomberg tablets discovered in the 21st century are older. The Vindolanda tablets have been translated from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and have been published in print and online (as texts and images). He published extensively on the Vindolanda site and appeared in several TV documentaries, including the 2003

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

production of '' Our Top Ten Treasures''.

Publications

*''Hadrian's Wall: Guide to the Central Sector'' (1972) *''Civilians on the Roman Frontier'' (1973) * ''Housesteads (Vircovicium) Roman Fort and Civilian Settlement'' (1973) *''Discoveries at Vindolanda'' (1973) *''Vindolanda: A Roman Frontier Post on Hadrian's Wall'' (1979) *''Garrison Life on the Roman Frontier'', Greenhead: Roman Army Museum (1991) *''The Building of Hadrian's Wall'' (1991) *'Four New Writing-Tablets from Vindolanda' in ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' pp. 431–446 by R and A Birley (1994) * ''The Foot at the Rock: On Hadrian's Wall'' (1994) *''The early wooden forts: the excavations of 1973-76 and 1985-89, with some additional details...'' (1994) *''Roman Records from Vindolanda on Rome's Northern Frontier'', Greenhead: Roman Army Museum (1999) *''Chesterholm: From a Clergyman's Cottage to Vindolanda Museum'' (2000) *''Civilians on Rome's Northern Frontier: Families, Friends and Foes'' (2000) *''Vindolanda - Extraordinary Records of Daily Life on the Northern Frontier'', Greenhead: Roman Army Museum (2005) *''Vindolanda: A Roman Frontier Fort on Hadrian's Wall'' (2012)

References

External links

Entry on Birley family genealogy Vindolanda Trust Vindolanda Tablets Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birley, Robin 1935 births 2018 deaths British archaeologists People educated at Clifton College 20th-century Royal Marines personnel British people of English descent Officers of the Order of the British Empire Scholars of Hadrian's Wall 20th-century archaeologists Robin Birley (archaeologist)