UK Trip Photo Book - 2017

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Vindolanda!

We spent TWO WEEKS excavating the Roman army fort at Vindolanda, just to the south of Hadrian's Wall!
 
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Aerial view of the site.
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View of the site from the west.
  
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Hedley Centre, where the students stayed.
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Codley Gate Cottage, where the faculty stayed.
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Codley Gate had feisty chickens that showed up every day to beg for food!
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The beautiful Vindolanda museum and cafe.  (We had an occasional tasty panini at the cafe!)
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Reconstructed Roman temple near the museum.
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The museum houses many of the amazing finds from the site, such as this child-sized shoe.
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And this adult shoe.
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And these coins.
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And these combs.
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As well as some human remains!
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The always-friendly director of the site, Andrew Birley.
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Pauline's firm but loving hand kept the students in shape!
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But they were less than pleased with some of the sack-lunch offerings! 







The most important part of our time at Vindolanda was the actual excavating!
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This knee pad says it all!
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A view of the trench outside the eastern wall of the fort.
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Devin, Thor, Siena, Kiersten and Kim digging in the eastern trench.
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Packing up for the day.
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Liz, Thor and Siena digging with a fellow volunteer.
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Liz digging with other volunteers.
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Ian painstakingly troweling away.
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Thor doing the same!
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Chris digging with another volunteer in the vicus (village) trench, just to the west of the fort.
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Andy and Julia in the vicus trench.
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Thor found a Roman gaming piece!
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So he got to hold the staff of destiny!
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Andy and Kim with a couple of nice finds!
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Kiersten with a potsherd!
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A rather large potsherd.
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We found dozens of potsherds, bones and other items every day!
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So...many...potsherds!
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Close-up of a couple potsherds.
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More important items were also found while we were there, such as this bracelet bead made of jet.
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And this grain scoop.
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And a Roman coin.







But the most amazing thing happened on our second to last day at Vindolanda!  Along with all the other volunteers working at the site, we found a cache of 25 Roman writing tablets - the largest find since 1992!!  Check out the WCC press release, as well as some of the articles that covered the story:
   WCC Press Release     The Guardian                   The Telegraph       Daily Mail
   Smithsonian                 Current Archaeology       Live Science
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Andrew Birley overseeing the excavation of the vicus trench where the tablets were found.
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The vicus trench.  The water-logged area created anaerobic conditions, which allowed the wooden tablets to survive.
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Another view of trench.
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At first, Siena was not happy with the anaerobic material (i.e., stinky mud).
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Whereas Julia might have been a little too excited to search the anaerobic material for tablets!
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Chris diligently searching for tablets.
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Kim doing the same.
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And DJ, too!
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A full-sized confronting tablet!
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Various pieces of tablets.
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Cleaning one of the tablets.


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