What I tell you is a story of excavations and finds, but also a story of passions. We are in England at the border with Scotland, and the excavations are those related to the site of Northumberland, corresponding to the town of Vindolanda, founded by the Romans near the Hadrian's Wall.
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The excavations, begun in 1973, were directed by the archaeologist Robin Birley, who over the years has brought to light many interesting finds that tell us about the life of Roman soldiers stationed in this part of the imperial boundaries. But surely the most significant finding was that in 1992, when Birley discovered letters written in Latin on a tree bark (now kept in the British Museum). These are exceptional documents both for the support on which they are written, surprisingly preserved and for their content, which casts light on the history of the Roman army, since they are often texts that speak of private issues, even if not all has yet been deciphered.
The passion I spoke about at the beginning is certainly mine for Roman Epigraphy, but for you much less interesting than that of Birley family: when Dr. Birley found the tablets, his son Andrew was 17 years old and the emotion he felt was so strong, that he decided to follow his father's career and to continue looking up the voices of the past in Wall.
Patricia, Robin's wife, has been following the excavation all these years and today, after 25 years, his son Andrew Birley not only is the new director of the excavations at Vindolanda, but has discovered other hidden tablets, which continue to reserve surprises for the scholars. Among the last letters, we find another passion: a soldier named Masclus, who writes a lot of these documents (dated to I cent. A.D. ) asks his superiors for ... beer supplies, because they were running out of it!