The site consists of a series of fortresses built one on top of the other, which have been divided by archaeologists into nine periods. The first five periods are successive forts built of wood and turf with different footprints (Periods I–V). They are buried as much as deep in the anoxic waterlogged soil and are covered by the remains of later periods, which makes excavation difficult, but has also led to the preservation of large amounts of organic matter. The fifth fort was converted to stone in period VIa, replaced with a new stone fort (the Severan complex) in Period VIb, and replaced with a second stone fort (Periods VII-IX), which accounts for most of the remains visible on the site today. Outside the fortress itself, a large bathhouse was built to the south in Period II, a smaller bathhouse and two temples were built to the west in Period VIa, and a (self-governing village) existed to the west of the fort in Period VII. view of Vindolanda view of Vindolanda
First timber fort (Period I) The first timber fortress covers largely the same area as the stone fortress which is visible today, although on a slightly different alignment, and only a few sections of the outer ditch that surrounded the fortress have been excavated, at the western and southern sides. These contained various items of rubbish which were dumped there towards the end of the fort's life, including various wooden, leather, and metal objects, notably writing tablets, a toy wooden sword, the crest for a centurion's helmet, made from local
hair moss, and an iron stylus. The date of this fort is placed ca. 85 AD by a cache of
Samian ware and a coin of
Vespasian.
Second timber fort (Period II) The second timber fort was about twice the size of the first fort and, unlike the first fort, it was aligned with the cardinal directions. The remains of this layer are up to below the modern ground level. The western portion of the
wattle and daub timber
praetorium (headquarters), the fortress' south gate, and adjacent parts of the south rampart have been excavated.
Dendrochronology suggests that the date of construction was 92 AD or shortly thereafter. The preserved portion of the praetorium consists of fifteen rooms from the western part of the structure (A–K, M–P), the western edge of the internal courtyard (Q), and a water tank in the courtyard (L). The floors were made of hard-packed clay, covered by a thick "carpet" of
bracken, which was probably replaced annually. This bracken preserved many metal and organic items, including several writing tablets and tent fragments. The water tank was long, wide, and deep. The sides were made of wattle and daub. It was filled from the north by a conduit. The south rampart was made of turf and was wide. The south gate was a cutting in this rampart. At each side of the gateway, the turf was held in place with horizontal wooden boards of
alder, reinforced by four large
oak posts on each side. There was a
lintel of
softwood held in place by the oak posts and iron spikes. There was probably a guard chamber above the gateway, supported by the oak posts. The gateway sat in a dip in the ground, through which water drains off the fortress site. Clay, tree branches, and split logs were buried to the north of the gateway in unsuccessful attempts to ameliorate the resulting instability of the ground.
Pre-Hadrianic bathhouse The pre-Hadrianic
bathhouse was located outside the fortress, southeast of the gate, just above a steep drop down to Doe Sike stream. It is a
Reihentyp bathhouse, consisting of a set of rooms laid out in a line, which the bather passed through in sequence. The cold rooms were located at the west end. The hot rooms with
hypocaust floors and the furnace were at the east end. An additional furnace and heated room were added on the north side and a cold plunge pool was added on the south side at the west end. There was a separate
latrine building just south of the cold plunge pool. A writing tablet indicates that it was built in Period II. The work was done by the local cohort, providing clear evidence that auxiliary cohorts and not just legionary troops, were capable of complex construction projects. The bricks and tiles for the building were probably manufactured on site. In subsequent periods, the garrison decreased in size and it became too big to run efficiently, so it was demolished in the mid-second century at the latest.
Third timber fort (Period III) The third timber fort was built on the same location and with the same layout as the second fort, but to a higher quality. The only excavated structures are the western portion of the
praetorium and the south gate. Most of the Vindolanda tablets (128) derive from bonfires of official correspondence and other rubbish that was set to the west of the
praetorium and was extinguished by rain and coated with mud before the first had a chance to incinerate them. A structure to the north of the
praetorium might be the
principia (headquarters), but the layout of the structure, although poorly known, seems unusual for this. The remains are about below the current ground level. The tablets indicate that this period ran from 97–105 AD. The explored portion of the
praetorium is north-south and was at least east-west (although only the westernmost has been uncovered). This makes it one of the largest
praetoria known from Britain. The interior walls were supported on horizontal oak beams, with uprights of alder and birch, and the spaces between filled in with
wattle and daub, which was covered over with a plaster wash. The internal floors were dirt or timber, covered with a layer of bracken which was harvested in July–August, dried for a month, and then used for a year as a kind of 'carpet'. Many small objects were found lodged within this layer, as well as loads of nuts, shells,
pupae of
stable flies, and traces of excrement and urine. As a result, the rooms would have been smelly and unhygienic, but warm. recovered from Room XI Nineteen rooms have been identified (I–V, VIII–XII, XIV–XXII), as well as a yard at the southwest corner (VIA–VIB) and an internal courtyard (VII and XIII). Room II, a large room in the southwest corner, measuring , with heavy beams to support an upper story, was probably used by the prefect for public audiences. Room IV, a long, narrow room () to the west contained many writing tablets, suggesting that it was a scribal office. Room VIII was a small kitchen (), including two small bread ovens and a rubbish pit, containing several writing tablets relating to its operations. It had an attached store room for kitchen supplies (Room V), with a wooden floor made from a recycled tabletop (). The southwest yard (VIA) contained the two bonfires of the Vindolanda tablets and a rubbish dump. The east-west corridor, Room IX, was the servants' entrance to the
praetorium from the road to the west. It connected to a north-south corridor, Room XII, which allowed access to Rooms X–XI and XV–XVII. At the northern end it led to the east-west corridor, Room XXI. Room X () was not fully cleared during the abandonment of the site. It contained a stack of oak roof-tiles, several metal, textile, and leather objects. Room XI () contained the best preserved section of wall, as well as some unique objects: a sock, a nearly complete
chamfron. Room XVIII () in the northwest corner of the
praetorium, accessed from corridor Room XXI, was the forge. A partition split the western part of the room in half. There were seven pits in the northeast corner. The whole floor was covered with of coal dust, charcoal, and ash, containing hundreds of fragments of bronze, iron, and lead objects, largely military in nature. Rooms XV–XVII to the east of corridor Room XII were accessed from the courtyard to the east. They were probably workspaces for the slaves of the prefect. Interesting finds included a comb in its leather case, a crowbar left lodged in the wall, gutting knives, barrel staves with brands and writing indicating that they had been imported from the
Rhone valley. The courtyard (VII and XIII) was cobbled and had three long oak mechanisms of unknown purpose embedded in it. The south gate was west of its predecessor in the second timber fort, in order to decrease the amount of runoff flowing through it. Like its predecessor, it cut through the turf rampart wall. The sides of the gateway consisted of three pairs of oak posts on each side supported timber planks which held the soil of the rampart in place. The roadway was composed of clay with stone chippings on top. A wooden pipe carried water from wells near the western edge of the plateau to the centre of the fortress. The pipe consists of a series of alder trunks with holes bored through the centre. These are joined together and held in place by oak boxes between each stretch. Dendrochronology shows that the logs were chopped down in 97 AD.
Romano-Celtic temple A small temple was built outside the fortress to the west in this period. It was a stone structure, with a
cella measuring . There was a doorway in the midde of the southern wall and a covered walkway running around the outside of the structure. It seems to be mentioned in contemporary writing tablets. In the second-century AD, it was demolished and converted into a cemetery for cremations. A votive altar has been found, but the surviving portion of the inscription names the worshipped god only as
deo ("the god"). After the abandonment of the third fort in 105 AD, there was a short period when the site was left uninhabited. Then it was levelled, covered in a layer of clay and turf up to deep and a new fortress was built.
Dendrochronology indicates that this took place within a year or so of 105.
Fourth timber fort (Period IV) The fourth fort was built on the same alignment as the second and third fortresses, but extended further west, making it the largest fortress ever built on the site. A large 'palatial building', a
schola (junior officers' mess hall), and a barracks have been identified. Other remains have proven difficult to identify due to interference from later structures built on top and the decayed state of the soft wood used in the construction of the fortress. The 'palatial building' was located north of the earlier
praetorium. It was a timber building surrounding a central courtyard, but only the western portion has been uncovered. Three rooms have floors made of
opus signinum. The walls were coated in plaster and there are signs of a private bath at the northeastern corner of the excavated area. The excavators suggest that it was built to house emperor Hadrian while he supervised the construction of Hadrian's Wall in 122 AD. West of the 'palatial building' was another large wooden structure, which has been identified as a
schola. The finds from the structure were mostly linked with cooking and eating, but there were also some writing tablets. Extensive traces of ash and soot show that the structure was destroyed in a fire. The barracks occupied the site of the earlier
praetorium. The area was subsequently the western ditch of stone fort I and the remains of the barracks have been heavily damaged by as a result. Nevertheless, it is clear that the structure consisted of fourteen single-room apartments (
contubernia), in two rows, seven facing west and seven facing east, back to back, with a verandah running along the front on each side. At a later stage, the eastern verandah was converted into additional accommodation space. Each of the
contubernia may have housed up to ten tightly packed soldiers. Finds of small shoes may have belonged to the soldiers' children and wives or to slave-boys serving the soldiers. At the north end of the structure there were two larger dwellings, each consisting of a front room and a hallway leading to two back rooms, each equivalent in size to a
contubernium. These apartments were probably for the
centurions commanding the rest of the soldiers in the barracks. Several long writing tablets were found in one of these quarters, including an appeal to someone addressed as "your majesty," perhaps the emperor Hadrian. Several more writing tablets, shoes,
styli, combs, leather,
ballista bolts, tools, and other metal objects were found throughout the building. Room XV contained dump including over a thousand leather fragments from a soldier's
tent. Roughly thirty meters west of the 'palatial building',
schola, and barracks are traces of a large courtyard with rooms around it. Loose finds included bronze
probes, tweezers, spoons, knives, razors, and needles. The structure was probably an infirmary. West of this infirmary were traces of another structure, which might be a barracks. Very large oak posts for a fortification wall have been uncovered to the west. The posts measure and are found every for a distance of more than . Dendrochronology shows that these posts date between 102 and 112 AD.
Fifth timber fort (Period V) The fifth timber fort is the most poorly attested period on the site, because it was largely destroyed when the foundations for the first stone fort were dug. In the area of the earlier
praetoria, a large multi-functional workshop (
fabrica) was uncovered which measured north-south and about east-west. It consisted of one narrow room running down the whole west side, several large square rooms in the centre, and a series of small rooms along the east side. Large flagstones were used for the floors. The walls consisted of thick alder and oak posts with boards in between. Many of the rooms had substantial layers of coal dust and iron slag. Room 9 contained a large forge (). Rooms 8 and 10 contained pits deep. Another
fabrica has been found further to the west, a courtyard building measuring or more, in which every building had a hearth.
Stone forts, stone huts A stone fort was built at Vindolanda, possibly for the 2nd Cohort of Nervians. 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. 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 , a self-governing village, developed to the west of the fort. The 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 and that it was named Vindolanda. To the south of the fort is a (a large imperial bath complex), that would have been used by many of the individuals on the site. The later stone fort, and the adjoining village, remained in use until about 285 AD, when it was largely abandoned for unknown reasons.
4th-century forts About 300 AD, the fort was again rebuilt, but the was not reoccupied, so most likely the area remained too unsafe for life outside the defended walls of the fort. In about 370, the fort was roughly repaired, perhaps by irregular soldiers. There is no evidence for the traditional view that Roman occupation ended suddenly in 410; it may have declined slowly. ==History of investigation==