HEXHAM, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that two metal swords and two wooden toy swords were unearthed at Vindolanda, a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall in northern England. The artifacts are thought to date to around A.D. 120, when about 1,000 people lived at the site. One of the swords, found in a corner of a living room in a cavalry barrack, had a bent tip. It had probably been discarded. A second sword, with its blade and tang intact, was found in a neighboring room. Archaeologists speculate its owner may have left the fort in a hurry without it. Also recovered were two small wooden toy swords, bath clogs, leather shoes, knives, brooches, arrowheads, and ballista bolts. To read in-depth about Hadrian's Wall, go to “The Wall at the End of the Empire.”
