Vindolanda vs Whithorn Eras

‘The Missing Dead’ is a new educational app to be played at Roman Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall. The app was developed in partnership between Newcastle University and the Vindolanda Trust and funded by the Arts Council England. It is a 2D narrative game which sees the player visit different buildings on the site and pick up clues to help solve an 1800-year-old mystery. Based on archaeological evidence excavated from the site, including the remains of the child skeleton, the game takes the player back in time from that archaeological discovery in 2010 to c. 230CE to try to solve the mystery. Guided by Aquila the Eagle the player will learn about what life would have been like at Vindolanda in the 3rd century AD by exploring the diverse community that lived there. Users follow Marcus, a Tribune at the nearby Roman Fort of Magna (next to the Roman Army Museum), who receives a request from his friend Vitalis to help him find his missing slave. The app is aimed at Key Stage 2 students (7-11-year olds) but can be enjoyed by any age. It deals with difficult, real-life subject matter, but handles this material with sensitivity: students learn about their past in a way designed to make them ask their own questions and to piece together the clues and information they are given to help them solve the mysteries, just like a real archaeologist! At the end of the game there is also an opportunity to go to the museum and to see the objects that appear as evidence in the game. They can also see the skeleton and discover for themselves how archaeologists have used the information available to learn as much as possible about its past.

Whithorn has been a benchmark in archaeology, particularly thanks to the extensive research dig carried on in the 1980s by Peter Hill and his team. The stratigraphy of the site and the extensive medieval graveyard which interrupted lower layers made it a challenging site to interpret. Below the graveyard was evidence of a Hiberno-Norse trading settlement, with extensive evidence of manufacture, including high-status comb manufacture similar to those found at Viking Dublin. An extensive Northumbrian church complex was also uncovered and in the earliest layers, evidence of shrines, including those which seem to be a focal point for the other burials. Much of this seemed to support Bede’s account of a saint, buried with “many other saints”. Recent research by Dr Adrian Maldonado, accompanied by epigraphical work by Dr Katherine Forsyth, suggests a new analysis of the earliest layers: careful correlation of the extensive spreads of coloured vessel glass suggests that these were contemporary with the graves, giving a picture of ritual funeral feasting in a Christian graveyard, rather fitting an orthodox pattern for a monastery. New research is likely to focus on the relationship between Whithorn and Kirmadrine, in the neighbouring Rhins, where the magnificent collection of carved tombstones of important clergy point to a really significant ecclesiastical site, which may be the Magnum Monasterium referred to in Irish writings and, until recently, supposed to point to Whithorn. At the centre of new thinking too, are the scatter of Roman finds in the South Machars and the discovery of the fortlet on the Bladnoch. Were the early Christians at Whithorn a Romanised native elite? Still, other questions remain to be answered about the anomalous Peter the Apostle stone, found near a roadside on the old route to the Isle of Whithorn, but geologically belonging to the Rhins. The Whithorn Trust hopes to investigate these lines of enquiry in the future, re-establishing its Research Committee to guide excavation and other surveys of areas where clues and answers may be found. Whatever the outcome, Whithorn’s evidence continues to be at the centre of controversy about the early post-Roman world, the spread of Christianity and the level of material culture at this period. www.whithorn.com