08-04-2009, 03:38 PM
This is a fun discussion for me, being a Vindolanda obsessive. (I run a Web site for Vindolanda volunteers/friends.)
Someone mentioned it being odd to find a shrine outside the fort. Actually, it seems it was standard practice for religious structures to have their homes outside the walls. That's what makes the Vindolanda find so exciting. It's -inside- the fort, built into the ramparts just west of the north gate. To the excavators' knowledge, it is unique. They know of no other Roman fort in Britain (or elsewhere for that matter) that's revealed a pagan religious shrine from the height of the Empire within the walls. (Except of course the Shrine of the Standards found in all principiae.) If someone knows of another for certain, I'd love a cite or Web link.
As for the Christian church, that was built directly on top of the demolished remains of the praetorium. Its timeframe is either the very last gasps of Roman occupation, or early post-Roman activity. Either way, a very different world from the period when the shrine was erected.
- Harry
Someone mentioned it being odd to find a shrine outside the fort. Actually, it seems it was standard practice for religious structures to have their homes outside the walls. That's what makes the Vindolanda find so exciting. It's -inside- the fort, built into the ramparts just west of the north gate. To the excavators' knowledge, it is unique. They know of no other Roman fort in Britain (or elsewhere for that matter) that's revealed a pagan religious shrine from the height of the Empire within the walls. (Except of course the Shrine of the Standards found in all principiae.) If someone knows of another for certain, I'd love a cite or Web link.
As for the Christian church, that was built directly on top of the demolished remains of the praetorium. Its timeframe is either the very last gasps of Roman occupation, or early post-Roman activity. Either way, a very different world from the period when the shrine was erected.
- Harry
Everything old is new again.
