A sword, arrowheads and ballistae shells – these are the finds in the excavations carried out in 2017 in the former Roman cavalry barracks in Vindolanda – a Roman camp in northern England.
Examination under the stone floor of one of the stone forts at Hadrian’s walls revealed a black, sweet-smelling, well-preserved soil without the presence of oxygen. Numerous fragments of wooden walls and floors, fences, pottery and animal bones were found in the ground. Scientists have clearly stated that there were definitely barracks for horsemen and their animals in this place.
In this place, traces of furnaces, bonfires and homesteads were found. In the corner of one of the rooms, a thin and sharp iron blade was discovered in a wooden scabbard with a wooden handle. A saddle was also found in this place.
A few weeks later, another blade was found, and in one of the rooms, a small wooden children’s sword – exactly the same one that tourists visiting Hadrian’s Roman walls can now buy.
Other finds include wooden writing slates, wooden bath “flippers”, leather shoes, knives, combs, hairpins, brooches and a wide range of weapons including spears and the aforementioned arrowheads and ballistae projectiles. Of the more valuable items, it is worth mentioning the exposed decorations for the harness and saddle elements, made of gold, which avoided corrosion.
The found artifacts will be on display at the Vindolanda Museum this fall.
