NORTHUMBERLAND, ENGLAND—Recent excavations at Vindolanda, a Roman fort near Hadrian’s Wall, have uncovered a free-standing water tank, animal bones, pens, hairpins, barrels, and a stone engraved with a hare and a hound, perhaps for Diana, the goddess of hunting. “The excavators concentrated on the water tank feature and the roads surrounding it. They managed to complete the task of excavating the tank down to its flagged floor, removing the rubbish, fill, and facing stones which had been pitched into the tank after its abandonment. These would have carried the large flag stones which were to eventually cover the feature entirely,” director of excavations Andrew Birley told Culture 24. Coins, animal bone, and pottery in the fill will help the researchers determine when the backfilling took place. The tank was encased with an outer wall within a temple or shrine. “The building would have been accessed from the road to the east, although one can imagine that most may have not been permitted to enter. Instead, they could have obtained their water from the small header tank in front of the building and been restricted to looking into the temple to see a raised platform at the back, perhaps with the effigy of the god or goddess reflected in the water below,” Birley said. To read more about life at Vindolanda, see "Artifact: Latin Party Invitation."
