Excavation resumed at Easter, when Northumberland was still experiencing a good dose of rain, wind, hail and snow showers - weather that has continued into late April! However, a hardy bunch of volunteers have made a good start to the 2005 campaign.

In the far west, Justin Blake's team have moved into the newly purchased field in the continuing search for the limits of both early forts and later civilian settlements, and have immediately dropped onto a 7.5 x 5.5metre stone building. It will be a few weeks before its function can be discovered.

Andrew Birley's team should have been spending their time on the Severan and pre-Hadrianic buildings lying below the third century civilian buildings, just to the east of the Fourth Cohort of Gauls' military bath house. They did make a start, but the water table is still so high that they have had to seek alternative sites until the weather improves. They are thus beginning the considerable task of examining the remaining stretch of unexcavated stone fort wall, between the West Gate and the SW corner.

At the southern end they will be exposing the berm (the space between wall and ditch), and there it lies above a part of the Cerialis praetorium of AD 101-105 - an area particularly rich in writing tablets back in the 1980s. It will be several weeks before the team gets anywhere near the right level, however.

Half way through the 2005 season we can report some very unexpected results. Justin Blake's search for the western limits of the built up area has now moved over 220 metres from the stone fort, and still buildings are being found - both stone and timber. Two small rectangular stone structures may have been elaborate mausolea, for nearby lay many fragments of at least three free-standing statues, along with fragments of Doric pillar capitals. Below the stone buildings the foundation trenches and post holes of timber buildings continue, including one massive 43cms square post whose survival was due to its incorporation in a later ditch system.

Andrew Birley is operating in two areas - to the east of the third century military bath house, and on the western wall of stone fort 2. The work on the bath house area has just completed the examination of the Severan military buildings lying below the third century civilian shops and houses, and if the spring and surface water can be controlled, the pre-Hadrianic buildings should become visible in the next few weeks. But the real surprise has been the state of the southern part of the stone fort's western wall. A long 25 metre section of that wall had collapsed at least three times, and the first collapsed wall was left lying across its berm and ditch when a replacement was erected. That also collapsed, although not so dramatically, and a new western face was added to it, some 60 cms further out, making use of large stones removed from other fort buildings. The excavators now face the task of removing the 1.25 metre thick fallen wall to gain access to the pre-Hadrianic buildings lying below - which include a substantial section of the residence of the prefect Flavius Cerialis, the findspot of so many of the famous writing tablets.

On of the fragments of statues from the far western part of the site perhaps from a funerary monument. In the past very few sculptured stones have been found (apart from altars)

The next few weeks are going to be exciting, if the weather is at all reasonable - and the next volunteers are going to reap the benefits created by the hard work of those who have laboured so hard since the beginning of April. The 2005 season will end in the first week of September.

Work in progress on the inner face of the fort wall - leaning to the west, but still strongly mortared together.

A long section of collapsed fort wall, left lying on the berm and ditch when a replacement was erected. What caused this dramatic collapse is unknown at present, but the answers will probably be found some three metres further down.

The 2005 excavation season has now been completed, and the sites are receiving their protective coverings for the coming winter. The excellent volunteers have all departed, and many of the Vindolanda staff are taking their holidays, before settling down to the post-excavation work. It has been an exciting but very difficult year, with some outstanding problems solved - and several more created! We now know where the northern ramparts of the pre-Hadrianic forts lay - a little further south than anticipated, passing beneath the toilet block of the later military bath-house - but we have failed to locate the western ramparts. In the far western part of the site, over 200 metres from the western wall of the later stone fort, Justin Blake's team have examined two small stone-built temples and some third century civilian buildings. Amongst the demolition debris near the temples, numerous fragments of stone statues were found - feet, arms, legs and a couple of heads, along with parts of ornamental columns. Hopefully, more will emerge next year. But the real excitement lay below these stone buildings, in the shape of the remains of a massive timber building. It was at least 40 metres long, with oak posts measuring 66 x 43cms, sunk a metre into the subsoil, and packed with puddled clay. These posts were over 4 times the size of anything found before. The floor of the building was exceptionally clean, unfortunately, although there was a small group of clay ovens in one corner. We hope that dendrochronology will help in dating the structure, which does not fit into the plans of any of the known forts. More work on this building will be a priority in 2006, because its layout and building materials look more like legionary work than anything else.

One of the massive oak posts being removed for dendrochronology

Excavation in progress on one of the temples

The head of a female deity, from the temple areas

Andrew Birley's team concentrated upon the examination of the southern part of the stone fort's western wall, which should have been a relatively straight-forward task - but it proved to be far from that. The first surprise was the discovery of a fallen fort wall, still mortared together, lying on the berm and dropping into the ditch to the west of the later wall - a 30 metre long section had healed over (due to very poor attention to foundations), and had been abandoned. It was a fine sight, but it obstructed access to the pre-Hadrianic timber buildings below. The new fort wall still stood to a height of over 2 metres, but it was leaning at some 35 degrees to the west, and the outside face had to be taken down by the excavators in the interests of health and safety. It was clear that the Romans had made several attempts to repair this wall, but they did not have the courage to do the job properly by providing better foundations. A small bonus was the discovery of a re-used centurial stone near the bottom of the inner face (see the photo), but it failed to reveal the name of the cohort doing the work.

The fallen fort wall, abandoned by the Romans

The inner face of the fort wall, standing over 2 metres high, but leaning to the west

Against the inner face of the wall there was the expected clay rampart mound, with surviving parts of stone steps to provide access to the rampart walk, but below that there were the well-preserved remains of two very fine turf ramparts - one with the turf layered horizontally and with timber strapping every 60cms or so, and the other with turf piled up in random fashion. The dates of these ramparts are currently unknown, although many theories have been proposed. The 2005 work stopped just short of the position of the earlier west gate of Stone Fort 1, discovered by Ian Richmond in 1934, and we look forward to examining it properly next year.

The twin turf ramparts lying below the later clay rampart

The usual range of Roman artefacts, pottery, bones and leather were found, of which the outstanding items were the fragments of stone statues, the centurial stone, and, unusually, four complete pottery vessels - along with a dozen or so small fragments of ink writing tablets.

The 2006 season will be devoted to a continuation of the 2005 programme.