Issue 108
Sept / Oct 2009
Contents
news
Major slipware kiln site found near Leeds
Roman graves rescued: but cemetery doomed?
Isle of Man house is one of Britain's first
features
THE BIG DIG: Fetternear
Penelope Dransart reports on the topical issue of MPs claims expenese, at Kettlethorpe Hall
London: the mud of ages
Lorna Richardson reports on the discoveries made by the Thames Discovery Programme community initiative and Nick Booth describes his Foreshore Group training
For the sake of the worms
As we celebrate Charles Darwin, Matthew Law considers one of his less well-known interests that led him to excavate at ancient sites
on the web
Recommended websites
Caroline Wickham-Jones reviews How to get active with archaeology, and John Schofield looks at Flash methods to view the evolution of graffiti
letters
your views and responses, with further Beneath the Sea coverage
book review
We review a new publication about the Vindolanda Roman Fort
CBA Correspondent
Mike Heyworth welcomes new HLF money for training, and highlights the CBA's role
ISSN 1357-4442
Editor Mike Pitts
book review
Vindolanda: A Roman Frontier Fort on Hadrian’s Wall
Reviewed by Paul Bidwell
by Robin Birley | Amberley Mar 2 2009 | £16.99 | pp192 | ISBN 978-1848682108 PB
Vindolanda is one of the most famous archaeological sites in Britain. Coincidences in its siting and how its deposits accumulated have resulted in exceptionally good preservation of organic materials. Amongst the plant remains, textiles, leather and wooden objects, were hundreds of writing tablets which, as Birley states in this book, provide “brilliant glimpses” of everyday life in the late first and early second centuries AD. Others have pitched it much higher, describing the Vindolanda tablets as an outstanding addition to the corpus of written Latin and as providing a new perspective on the Roman army in the western part of the empire.
Birley can be forgiven his modesty in understating the importance of Vindolanda. It has always been part of his life. His father acquired the small estate which included the fort site and Chesterholm, now the Vindolanda Museum, in 1929. Eight Birleys, by birth or marriage, appear in this book, although since 1970 the site and its collections have been owned by a trust which includes several distinguished Romanists. This is the fullest account yet to appear of the struggles to set up the project and keep it going through disasters such as the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001.
The successive state heritage agencies emerge as the greatest obstacles to progress. Birley reports a much-improved relationship, perhaps the result of an irresistible force meeting a far from immoveable object. Setting aside the politics, and even bearing in mind the support of national politicians and prominent academics, the achievements of the Birleys and the Vindolanda Trust are remarkable. The account of a major research project and museum funded by income from visitors and donations should be read by everyone concerned with the management of an archaeological site.
Most of the book, however, is about the excavations. Vindolanda was an ordinary fort which has produced extraordinary finds. For most of the Roman period it was held by the commonest types of Roman military units in Britain, which combined footsoldiers and cavalry. Most of the writing tablets come from the early timber fort, occupied and rebuilt three times between about AD86 and 120. Thereafter the chronology becomes shaky until the early third century when the first stone fort was rebuilt following the arrival of the Fourth Cohort of Gauls, which was at Vindolanda until the end of the Roman period. In common with other forts in the Hadrian’s Wall zone, recent work has produced a new picture of the late Roman and early post-Roman period which at Vindolanda includes a church built on the site of the commanding officer’s house.
Birley’s account is based on a large series of reports and studies which occupy 40cm of the reviewer’s book shelves. None – with the exception of my own publication in 1985 – is a conventional archaeological report with all the finds published and related to a detailed stratigraphical description. This is no criticism of an alternative approach, widely adopted, which in effect publishes the excavation results as a series of fascicules. Unfortunately, the publication of the objects has run far ahead of the full descriptions of the buildings, about which the reader will often want to know much more. Many books could and will be written about Vindolanda. A priority must be one on its structural archaeology.
Paul Bidwell is Head of Archaeology for Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums.
CBA web:
British Archaeology
February 2001
April 2001
June 2001
August 2001
October 2001
December 2001
February 2002
April 2002
June 2002
August 2002
October 2002
December 2002
March 2003
May 2003
July 2003
September 2003
November 2003
January 2004
March 2004
May 2004
July 2004
September 2004
November 2004
Jan/Feb 2005
Mar/Apr 2005
May/Jun 2005
Jul/Aug 2005
Sep/Oct 2005
Nov/Dec 2005
Jan/Feb 2006
Mar/Apr 2006
May/Jun 2006
Jul/Aug 2006
Sep/Oct 2006
Nov/Dec 2006
Jan/Feb 2007
Mar/Apr 2007
May/Jun 2007
Jul/Aug 2007
Sep/Oct 2007
Nov/Dec 2007
Jan/Feb 2008
Mar/Apr 2008
May/Jun 2008
Jul/Aug 2008
Sep/Oct 2008
Nov/Dec 2008
Jan/Feb 2009
Mar/Apr 2009
May/Jun 2009
Jul/Aug 2009
Sep/Oct 2009
Nov/Dec 2009
Jan/Feb 2010
Mar/Apr 2010
May/Jun 2010
Jul/Aug 2010
Sep/Oct 2010
CBA Briefing
Fieldwork
CBA Network
Conferences
Courses & lectures
Grants & awards
Noticeboard