Unearthing everyday life of the Romans of Vindolanda
ALMOST 2,000 years ago Atto was working away at his craft in a Northumberland Roman fort.
His name has come down the centuries because his workbench was unearthed during a dig at Vindolanda.
The bench, inscribed with his name, was found in what had been the house of the fort commander, who we know from the wooden Vindolanda writing tablets was called Flavius Cerialis.
Now leather worker Atto’s bench will be one of the objects on show at Vindolanda’s new Wooden Underworld gallery which opens to visitors today.
It will display an array of wooden objects which have been preserved in Vindolanda’s oxygen-free archaeological environment, resulting in the preservation of organic materials which usually don’t survive the test of time.
As well as examples of thousands of leather, textiles and plant material items, 1,463 wooden objects have been excavated at the site – from three-metre long water pipes, axles and even a toilet seat to small objects such as combs, boxes, kitchen utensils, tools, furniture and even a barrel stave with the maker’s name from Spain, which probably contained wine.
The collection tells the everyday human story of those who lived and worked on the Northern frontier nearly 2,000 years ago. The new gallery project, Unlocking Vindolanda’s Wooden Underworld, has been backed by a grant of £1.3m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The gallery has special display cases which allow temperature and humidity to be kept at safe levels and are also large enough to accommodate some of the current and future giant wooden objects. Patricia Birley, chair of the Vindolanda Trust’s development and impact committee, said: “We are thrilled to be able to share this unique collection with the public and we are grateful of the support of National Lottery players who have enabled us to create such a wonderful extension to our museum at Vindolanda.” Director of excavations Dr Andrew Birley said: “Vindolanda has produced some of the most incredible wooden artefacts to have been recovered from the Roman empire over the past 50 years of excavations at the site. “An insight into the Roman world, so often preserved in stone elsewhere, is brought to life with this incredible designated collection by the construction of a purpose-built gallery. Here for the first time the trust has put on display items that are unique and include the only surviving Roman wooden toilet seat to the only surviving wooden