Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it pre-dated.

Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill in Northumberland, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth.

It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, a set of wooden leaf-tablets that were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.

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.

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 1,000 men.

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.

[1] 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 anoxic conditions at these depths have preserved thousands of artefacts, such as 850 ink tablets[13] and over 160 boxwood combs,[14] that normally disintegrate in the ground,[note 2] thus providing an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of Roman life – military and otherwise – on the northern frontier.

[16] A study of spindle whorls from the north-western quadrant has indicated the presence of spinners of low- and high-status in the fort in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.

According to Birley, they are not part of a matching pair:[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] The larger of the two gloves is cut from a single piece of leather and was folded into a pouch configuration, the extending leather at each side were slotted into one another forming a complete oval shape creating an inner hole into which a hand could still easily be inserted.

[28] In February 2023, a 2,000 year-old disembodied 6.3-inch (160 mm) long wooden phallus toy was revealed, according to the research published in the journal Antiquity.

[29][30] In addition to the older initial findings of ink tablets, shoes and combs, several more artifacts and discoveries of note have been covered by the media.

In 2017, the British newspaper The Guardian focused on a discovery of cavalry barracks that were uncovered during the excavation season that held a large number of artifacts including swords, ink tablets, textiles, arrowheads, and other military paraphernalia.

[32] In the 2014 excavation season, BBC ran a story about the discovery of one of the few surviving examples of a wooden toilet seat to be found in the Roman Empire.

[34] In 2010, the BBC announced the discovery of the remains of a child between the ages of 8 and 10 years, which was uncovered in a shallow pit in a barrack room in a position suggesting that its arms may have been bound.

[35] Another find publicised on the BBC website in 2006 was a bronze and silver fibula modelled with the figure of Mars, with the name Quintus Sollonius punched into its surface.

The images include crosses, angels, a smiling priestly figure holding a crook, fish, a whale, ships, the Greek letters chi-rho.