Like pater, like son as Roman letters found
IN 1992, Robin Birley made arguably the most important find in British archeological history when he uncovered a huge trove of soldiers’ letters from the Roman fort of Vindolanda, near Hadrian’s Wall.
As scholars picked through the wellpreserved accounts of legionnaire life on the edge of empire, a star character emerged: Masclus, and, in particular, his demands for more beer.
Now, 25 years later, Mr Birley’s son Andrew claims to have discovered another haul of correspondence, which again appear to include written demands from the same Roman cavalry officer – except this time he wants to go on holiday.
The new cache of 25 letters were reportedly found last month in the deepest level of the fort complex and is now being conserved ahead of scanning with infrared lights.
This should make the faint ink marks legible, but experts already believe they have discovered a written request from Masclus, asking for leave from his duties. Most of the missives are, like those of the original find, written on thin sheets of birch. However, experts are particularly excited about a doubleleaved oak tablet, which suggests it contains important correspondence.
“This is the find I have been hoping for all my working life,” said Andrew Birley, who was a teenager when his father discovered the main haul, and now leads the trust that owns the site.
“My father has been rather poorly recently, but by the time I got home he had cracked open a bottle of champagne.”
Most of the hundreds of letters already found at Vindolanda, near Bardon Mill on Northumberland, are in the care of the British Museum, with a handful on loan at the ruined fort.
They are considered some of the most famous existing documents from the Roman world, remarkable for their highly personal, warts-and-all account of Army life.
The new letters, believed to originate in the 1st century, were found in a trench that was repeatedly rebuilt over the years with turf and timber.
Mr Birley said: “They were spaced out at intervals along the line of a trench, under a rubble-filled foundation layer. We wondered if somebody was carrying them in a bag with a hole in one corner, or if somebody had been walking along reading them and chucking them away one by one.”
While the Vindolanda letters are believed not to be as old as the Bloomberg Tablets, which were discovered in London between 2010 and 2013, they are more intimate in nature.
The large oak-leaved document is currently illegible and the ink faded, but it is hoped the writing will be deciphered with use of infrared.