Vindolanda Fort and museum

Following directly on from the hike to Hadrian’s Wall, the participants were then taken to Vindolanda Fort, one of the largest and most complete Roman forts in Britain.

Vindolanda, meaning white elds or lawns in Latin, is a substantial and historically signi cant ancient Roman fort. At the site itself is a museum housing many of the artefacts excavated from the fort. The museum is run by the Vindolanda Charitable Trust, which was established in 1970, shortly before the discovery of the famous Vindolanda writing tablets in 1973.

At Vindolanda, the participants were given the chance to explore the breadth of Roman history at their own pace, walking between the ancient ruins and the wooden recreations. In the museum, they saw many of the uncovered items of the Roman times – from everyday items such as tools and combs to jewellery, and from other adornments all the way to a vast array of ancient weapons and armour.

Blacksmithing

In the following weeks, the participants were invited to join in a series of physical arts and crafts workshops. The rst of these was blacksmithing.

Blacksmithing is the art of forging blazing pieces of metal, usually iron or steel, into functional and decorative pieces of metalwork. This is usually achieved through a process of heating, hammering and dousing of the metal. By hammering the metal, you contort its shape, elongating and attening sections to work it into whatever shape you need.

Through the workshops at MBC, the participants were taught to make two di erent pieces of metalwork: nails and caltrops. The process was guided by veteran smithy, Darren Witty of The Witty Smith CIC.

In this blacksmithing workshop, the participants would learn about the history of blacksmithing and how that relates to the Romans.

Nail

The trusty nail may seem like a very ordinary object to be making, as they’re relatively cheap and abundant. Yet, this wasn’t necessarily the case for the Romans. While we can bene t from industrial developments such as mass production, the Romans had to make each item one by one. The whole process can be quite challenging for a beginner. Fortunately, we had Darren from The Witty Smith to o er his guidance.

The process began by repeatedly heating and hammering a strip of metal, rotating as needed, to create a shape roughly resembling a nail. From there, the point was fashioned and the head was attened to create the signature nail shape we all know.

The process took about twenty minutes per participant and took quite a bit of physical e ort. When considering this, it's amazing to think that blacksmiths of the ancient Roman times would create hundreds of nails exactly like this per day!

Caltrops

Caltrops were a form of Roman trap, a small pointed piece of metal designed to always land with a spike facing upward. Because of this, these were predominantly used by the Romans to injure the cavalry and footmen of their enemies in the midst of battle. Simply throw a few of these in front of your charging enemies and you’ll quickly slow them down.

As barbaric as the caltrop is, it does represent an important part of Roman blacksmithing history, and it is a relatively straightforward object to make. As such, the participants also learned how to make a caltrop.