Jewelry Excavated at Roman Fort Vindolanda Hadrian’s Wall England Rings Celtic

  Vindolanda (Celtic-Romano) Jewellery by Martin Henig.

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  DESCRIPTION:  Paperback.  Publisher: Frank Graham (1975).  Pages: 32.  Size:  8½ x 5½ inches.  Vindolanda is a Roman-era fort along Hadrian’s Wall in England.  This is a catalog of the jewelry (and some other artifacts) which have been excavated at the site. See more about the history of Vindolanda below. Romano-British jewelry exhibits an amalgam of local (Celtic) and Mediterranean (Graeco-Roman) traditions. In order to understand the rich variety of finds from Vindolanda, we must bear in mind the vast disruption of life in Britain brought about by the absorption of new ideas and institutions and by the influx of a new and exotic element in the population, mainly from the long-established cities of the Western Roman Provinces (with a smaller admixture of traders and others from the East), as well as the conservatism of the local populace. It must be remembered that of all artifacts, those connected with adornment are the most personal and the most likely to be bequeathed from one generation to the next. Although fashions changed in the Roman period, frequently with such bewildering rapidity that individual brooches are often quite closely datable, these developments seldom disguise what went before. Through jewelry, in the forms of finger rings, penannular brooches and belt buckles, we can readily discern continuity from prehistory to the late Roman period and into the time of the Dark Age Kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons and Celts.

CONDITION: VERY GOOD.  Lightly read oversized softcover. Frank Graham (1975) 32 pages. From the outside the covers evidence mild edge and corner shelfwear, as well as light rubbing and a little crumpling alojg the spine (as is customary with a thin paper-bound book) with slight tanning at the extremities of the back cover. However overall the covers are but lightly worn and remain attractive. Inside there is a gift inscription to the underside of the front cover (facing the title page, the first page of the book). The pages are otherwise unmarked, unblemished, clean, crisp, and remain well-bound. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING! #7708a.

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  PUBLISHER REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  Vindolanda is a Roman auxiliary fort (a "castrum" to the Romans) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, among the most important finds of military and private correspondence (written on wooden tablets) found anywhere in the Roman Empire.

  The fort was garrisoned by auxiliary infantry or cavalry units, not components of Roman legions. From the early third century AD onwards, this was the Fourth Cohort of Gauls. It had been presumed that this title was by this time purely nominal, with auxiliary troops being recruited locally, but an inscription found in a recent season of excavations suggests that native Gauls were still to be found in the regiment and that they liked to distinguish themselves from British soldiers. The inscription reads, "CIVES GALLI DE GALLIAE CONCORDES QUE BRITANNI"...a loose translation is "the troops from Gaul dedicate this statue to the goddess Gallia with the full support of the British-born troops".

  The earliest Roman forts at Vindolanda were built of wood and turf. The remains are now buried as much as 4 metres deep in the waterlogged soil. There are 5 timber forts, built (and demolished) one after the other. The first, a small fort was probably built by the 1st Cohort of Tungrians about AD 85. By about AD 95 this was replaced by a larger wooden fort built by the 9th Cohort of Batavians, a mixed infantry-cavalry unit of about 1000 men. That fort was repaired in about AD 100 under the command of the Roman prefect Flavius Cerialis.

    When the 9th Cohort of Batavians left in AD 105, their fort was demolished. The 1st Cohort of Tungrians came back to Vindolanda, built a larger wooden fort, and remained here until Hadrian's Wall was built around AD 122, when they moved, most likely to Vercovicium present-day (Housesteads). Soon after Hadrian's Wall was built, most of its men were moved north to the Antonine Wall. A stone fort was built at Vindolanda, possibly for the 2nd Cohort of Nervians.

  From AD 208 to 211, there was a major rebellion against Rome in Britain, and the Emperor Septimius Severus led an army to Britain to cope with it personally. The old stone fort was demolished, and replaced by an unconventional set of army buildings on the west, and an unusual array of many round stone huts where the old fort had been: some of these circular huts are visible by the north and the southwest walls of the final stone fort. The Roman army may have built these to accommodate families of British farmers in this unsettled period.

  Septimius Severus died at York in AD 211; his sons paid off the rebels and left for Rome. The stone buildings were demolished, and a large new stone fort was built where the huts had been, for the 4th Cohort of Gauls. A self-governing village developed to the west of the fort. A stone altar found in 1914 proves that the settlement was named Vindolanda.  To the south of the fort is a large Roman bath.The Roman baths were used by many. The later stone fort, and the adjoining village, remained in use until about AD 285, when it was largely abandoned.

  About AD 300 the fort was again rebuilt, but the village was not reoccupied, so most likely the area remained too unsafe for life outside the defended walls of the fort. In about 370 AD the fort was roughly repaired, perhaps by irregular soldiers. There is no evidence for the traditional view that Roman occupation ended suddenly in AD 410; contemporary evidence is that it declined slowly, perhaps for several centuries.

  In the 1930s, the house at Chesterholm where the museum is now located was purchased by archaeologist Eric Birley, who was interested in excavating the site. The excavations have been continued by his sons, Robin and Anthony, and his grandson, Andrew Birley, into the present day. They are undertaken each summer, and some of the archaeological deposits reach depths of six meters. The anoxic conditions at these depths have preserved thousands of artifacts, such as wooden writing tablets, thus providing an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of Roman life, military and otherwise, on the northern frontier.

  A spectacular find in 2006 was the richly detailed bronze and silver brooch (fibula) modelled with the figure of Mars, on which Quintus Sollonius, a Gaul to judge by his name, had carefully punched his name before he lost it in the early second century; nothing comparably fine has been recovered along the Wall.  In 2010, the remains of what is thought to be a girl between the ages of 8 and 10 years old, with her hands tied, were uncovered in a shallow pit in what was the barrack room. She is believed to have been murdered about 1,800 years ago.

  Along with ongoing excavations (in season) and excavated remains, a full size replica of a section of Hadrian's Wall in both stone and timber can be seen on the site.  The Vindolanda site museum, also known as Chesterholm Museum, conserves and displays finds from the site.  The museum includes full-sized reconstructions of a Roman temple, a Roman shop, Roman house and Northumbrian croft, all with audio presentations. Exhibits include Roman boots, shoes, armour, jewelry and coins, infra-red photographs of the writing tablets and, from 2011, a small selection of the tablets themselves, on loan from the British Museum.

  REVIEW:  Martin Henig is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London and a former Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. He is currently engaged with friends in completing a definitive catalogue of all the Roman sculpture from London and south-eastern England as well as a major catalogue of Roman cameos. He is the author of standard works on Roman art and religion in Britain. From 1985 to 2007 he was Honorary Editor of the British Archaeological Association. His wide interests are reflected in the contents of the Festschrift presented to him on his 65th birthday, Pagans and Christians - from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Oxford 2007) . Recently ordained, he is now serving as a deacon in the West Oxford benefice which includes the early ecclesiastical site of Binsey, which is the subject of a collection of essays of which he is co-editor, also published by Amberley.

  READER REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  Outstanding little brochure documenting the significant finds of  Roman-Celtic jewelry at Vindolanda.

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