We spent a couple of
weeks at Vindolanda, a Roman
army fort just to the south of Hadrian's
Wall.
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The remains of Vindolanda!
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The cafe and museum at Vindolanda. |
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The museum is small, but it contains an impressive
collection of artifacts from Vindolanda - such as
this wooden practice sword.
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And these combs.
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The faculty stayed at Codley Gate Cottage.
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The students stayed at the Hedley Centre.
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They survived the two weeks under the watchful eyes
of Pauline!
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The students became great friends!
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And had one adventure...
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...after another!
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Ian found the Roman Milestone on the ancient
Stanegate Road near Codley Gate Cottage.
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The gang enjoyed the delicious food and beverages
available at the pub up the road from Vindolanda. |
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Especially the Sticky Toffee Pudding!!
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We spent some of our free time hiking around the
English countryside.
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A few of us made the climb up to the top of Barcombe
Hill, just to the south of Vindolanda.
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We had an amazing view of Vindolanda from the top of
the hill. |
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And great views of the surrounding countryside.
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Everyone's favorite hike, however, was Hadrian's
Wall.
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A view of the wall above Sycamore Gap.
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Milecastle 39 along the wall.
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The classic view of Sycamore Gap and the famous
"Robin Hood" tree.
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Andy and the Sycamore.
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Crag Lough a bit further east along the wall from
Sycamore Gap.
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Hiking victory!
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Some of the gang hiking the wall.
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Ain't afraid of some ancient wall!
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Resting for a bit during the long hike...
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...and a bit longer.
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The wind challenge!
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Most of our time was spent excavating the
various ditches on the northern side of the
fort. And it was awesome! We made up
about half of the excavation team during the
two-week session from 3-14 June. So we got
to dig with people from all over the UK, and
even as far away as New Zealand!
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A view of our excavation site from the west.
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The joys of digging!
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Troweling is art!
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Who doesn't love giant rocks?
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One square at a time...
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2:30 tea time was always welcome.
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Important finds allowed you to hold the staff of
destiny!
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Such as Dave...
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...and his potsherd.
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And Alejandra...
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...and her lead weight.
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We didn't find as many writing tablets as we did
during the 2017 trip. Only one this time.
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But we found a bunch of Roman shoes. Like this
one!
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And this one.
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And this one.
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And this one.
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And this one.
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Our group picture with Marta, the site
archaeologist.
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Jack made "friends" with Norman and Lynn!
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Our last two days were rained out.
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But site director Andrew Birley gave us nice
farewell walk-through and discussion of what we had
accomplished during our stay at Vindolanda.
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