Sunday, June 07, 2020

Lockdown at a Roman fort

CONSERVATION: Vindolanda Fort: Roman site becomes family's lockdown home. A family spending lockdown living in a Roman Fort have described it as a "surreal experience" (BBC).
As the UK went into lockdown Sonya and Colin Galloway, who both work for the trust that runs Vindolanda Fort, left their home in Hexham to live there.
The couple thought they and their sons Oliver, 15, and Luke, 13, would only be there for three or four weeks.
But they have remained for 11 weeks, sweeping bathhouses and protecting artefacts from wind and badger damage.

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I visited Vindolanda a couple of years ago, and also back in 2006. For PaleoJudaica posts, see here and here and links.

Vindolanda Fort flourished in the late first and early second centuries C.E. and continued into the fourth century. It is best known for the vast archive of Latin documentary tablets found there, sometimes known as the Dead Sea Scrolls of Britain. For details, and for other stories that connect Vindolanda and Hadrian's Wall to ancient Judaism and the Bible in various indirect ways, see the links.

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