Vindolanda Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort ( " castrum " ) 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 . Early accounts . The first post - Roman record of the ruins at Vindolanda was made by the antiquarian William Camden , in his " Britannia " ( 1586 ) . Occasional travellers reached the site over the next two hundred years , and the accounts they left are useful because they predate much of the stone - stealing that has damaged the site . The military bath - house was still partly roofed when Christopher Hunter visited the site in 1702 . In about 1715 an excise officer named John Warburton found an altar there , which he removed . In 1814 the first real archaeological work was begun , by the Rev . Anthony Hedley . Hedley died in 1835 , before writing up his discoveries . Little more was done for a long time , although in 1914 a workman found another altar at the site , set up by the civilians living at the fort in honour of the Divine House and Vulcan . Several names for the site are used in the early records , including Chesters on Caudley , Little Chesters , the Bower , and Chesterholm ; the altar found in 1914 confirmed that the true Roman name for the site was " Vindolanda " , which had been in dispute as one early source referred to it as " Vindolana " . Garrison . The garrison were auxiliary infantry or cavalry units , not components of Roman legion s . 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 : A free translation of this is " The troops from Gaul dedicate this statue to the goddess Gallia with the full support of the British - born troops " . Fort and village . Early wooden forts . 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 anoxic 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 85 AD . By about 95 AD 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 100 AD under the command of the Roman prefect Flavius Cerialis . When the 9th Cohort of Batavians left in 105 AD , 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 122 AD , when they moved , most likely to Vercovicium ( Housesteads ) . Stone forts , stone huts . Soon after Hadrian ' s Wall was built , most of its men were moved north to the Antonine Wall . To cope with the dearth of soldiers , a stone fort was built at Vindolanda , possibly for the 2nd Cohort of Nervians . From 208 to 211 AD , there was a major rebellion against Rome in Britain , and the Emperor Septimus 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 . Septimus Severus died at York in 211 AD ; 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 . Vicus . A " vicus " , a self - governing village , developed to the west of the fort . The " vicus " contains several rows of buildings , each containing several one - room chambers . Most are not connected to the existing drainage system . The one that does was perhaps a butchery where , for health reasons , an efficient drain would have been important . A stone altar found in 1914 ( and exhibited in the museum ) proves that the settlement was officially a " vicus " , and that it was named Vindolanda . To the south of the fort is a large Roman bath . The later stone fort , and the adjoining village , remained in use until about 285 AD , when it was largely abandoned for some reason . 4th century forts . About 300 AD the fort was again rebuilt , but the " vicus " 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 410 AD ; it may have declined slowly . Excavation . 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 artefacts that normally disintegrate in the ground , thus providing an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of Roman life – military and otherwise – on the northern frontier . 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 . Site museum . The Vindolanda site museum , also known as Chesterholm Museum , conserves and displays finds from the site . The museum is set in gardens , which include full - sized reconstructions of a Roman temple , a Roman shop , Roman house and Northumbria n croft , all with audio presentations . Exhibits include Roman boots , shoes , armour , jewellery 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 . 2011 saw the reopening of the museum at Vindolanda , and also the Roman Army Museum at Carvoran , refurbished with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund . 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 . Vindolanda Trust . In 1970 , the Vindolanda Trust , a registered charity , was founded to administer the site and its museum , and in 1997 , the Trust took over the running of the Roman Army Museum at Carvoran , another Hadrian ' s Wall fort , which it had acquired in 1972 .