Vindolanda

Ever thought history was all sewn up? Vindolanda will put you right on that.

I have never had much time for museums. My attention wanders, especially when herding the young scion at full tilt through tourist traps. But Vindolanda stopped me in my tracks.

What makes it work is simple: the ruins and the finds sit together. You see the thing, then you see where it came from. The British Museum cannot say the same. Its treasures are magnificent, of course, but they are about as connected to their origins as a fish is to a bicycle.

The famous writing tablets, though, deserve better lighting. Too dim, too distant, too close. A rare own goal.

Now, the thorny bit. There is a quiet war going on between keeping archaeology respectable and turning it into a day out for the family¹Bewley, Bob, and Ian Morrison. “Whose heritage? The Heritage Lottery Fund and archaeology.” The Archaeologist, no. 76, summer 2010, pp. 22-23, https://www.archaeologists.net/sites/default/files/2023-11/The-Archaeologist-76.pdf.. Branding the region “Hadrian’s Wall Country” brings in the visitors, but it also sells a story the wall never actually lived. It was not a hard border between nations. It was rather more complicated than that, as most things worth knowing tend to be²Hanscam, Emily, and Brian Buchanan. “Walled in: borderlands, frontiers and the future of archaeology.” Antiquity, vol. 97, no. 394, 2023, pp. 1004-1016, https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.14..

Worse still, climate change is quietly eating the organic remains underground. Every year of delay is a page lost forever³Renaud, Jeff. “New research re-examines the Roman Empire’s leather economy.” *Western News*, 11 Dec. 2025, https://news.westernu.ca/2025/12/roman-empire-leather-economy/https://news.westernu.ca/2025/12/roman-empire-leather-economy/.

The past, it turns out, is not settled at all. It is a row that nobody is winning, and the clock is running down rather faster than is comfortable.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

• 1
  Bewley, Bob, and Ian Morrison. “Whose heritage? The Heritage Lottery Fund and archaeology.” The Archaeologist, no. 76, summer 2010, pp. 22-23, https://www.archaeologists.net/sites/default/files/2023-11/The-Archaeologist-76.pdf.
• 2
  Hanscam, Emily, and Brian Buchanan. “Walled in: borderlands, frontiers and the future of archaeology.” Antiquity, vol. 97, no. 394, 2023, pp. 1004-1016, https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.14.
• 3
  Renaud, Jeff. “New research re-examines the Roman Empire’s leather economy.” *Western News*, 11 Dec. 2025, https://news.westernu.ca/2025/12/roman-empire-leather-economy/https://news.westernu.ca/2025/12/roman-empire-leather-economy/