Voices from Vindolanda

The oldest handwritten documents found in Britain — a birthday invitation, a request for more beer, a strength report, a deed of sale. The people of the frontier, in their own words.

A note on place and date. These tablets come from Vindolanda (near Chesterholm, Northumberland) on the Stanegate frontier — the road-and-fort line that ran beside the later Hadrian's Wall. Most date c. AD 85–120, before or around the Wall's beginning, so they are best read as frontier documents from the years either side of the Wall rather than from the Wall itself. We summarise each tablet and link to the full Latin and translation at Roman Inscriptions of Britain.

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