ABSTRACT
As for the context in which these documents must be placed, the archaeology at Vindolanda has its own story to tell and it can be reviewed only very briefly here. Robin Birley's analysis shows that in the early forts at Vindolanda which have given us the writing-tablets five periods of occupation can be identified; the dates assigned to these periods have to be treated with the caution which must always be applied to such indications. The earliest fort begins c. AD 85 and terminates c. AD 92 (Period 1); the fort is then enlarged and Periods 2 and 3 run down to c. AD 103 (Period 2 c. AD 92-7, Period 3 c. AD 97-102/3); after a short hiatus, Period 4 perhaps begins in AD 104 and takes us to about AD 120, and the occupation of Period 5 lies between the years AD 120 and 130.2 The period shortly after AD 90, from which the earliest of the writing-tablets appear to derive, may be crucial in the establishment of the pre-Hadrianic, Stanegate frontier (fig. 1). The enlargement of the fort at Vindolanda probably fits into a pattern which is repeated elsewhere at important sites in the frontier region and it suggests that this phase of construction was the central feature of a new phase of Roman
policy. This will have been initiated shortly after the decision was taken, late in the 80s, to abandon the greater part of the territory in Scotland which Agricola's last campaigns covered.3 The three decades between AD 90 and 120, immediately prior to the commencement of Hadrian's Wall, mark an important phase in the history of the frontier and it is precisely this period which the Vindolanda writing-tablets illuminate.
