Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Scientists dug at a place called Vindonissa in Switzerland. Long ago, Roman soldiers lived there.
They found the walls of a very old Roman army camp. It is the oldest one found at this place.
They also found a building where soldiers slept. It had many small rooms.
The best finds were a gold coin and a piece of old bread, almost 2,000 years old.
- excavation
- the careful digging up of an area to find old objects
- Roman
- relating to ancient Rome and its empire
- soldier
- a person who serves in an army
- camp
- a place where soldiers stay and live
- barracks
- a building where soldiers sleep and live
- coin
- a small round piece of metal used as money
- gold
- a valuable yellow metal
- ancient
- very old, from a long time ago
Level 2 — Elementary
An eleven month excavation at Vindonissa in Switzerland has uncovered the defenses of the site's earliest known Roman military camp, along with a barracks building where legionaries once lived.
The Cantonal Archaeology Department of Aargau carried out the dig ahead of a new housing project, and found a ditch and the remains of a wood and earth rampart about seventy meters south of a later fortress wall.
The barracks building measured nine meters wide and at least thirty meters long, with rooms arranged in a regular pattern for soldiers to live and sleep in.
Among the most remarkable finds were a gold coin minted under Emperor Tiberius, a small carved gemstone, tools that may have been used by Roman doctors, and a charred loaf of bread, a discovery never made before in Switzerland.
- defense
- a structure built to protect a place from attack
- legionary
- a soldier who served in a Roman legion
- ditch
- a long narrow channel dug into the ground
- rampart
- a defensive wall or bank built around a fort
- fortress
- a large building or camp built for military defense
- mint
- to produce coins, usually made of metal
- gemstone
- a valuable stone used in jewelry
- charred
- burned so that only a blackened surface remains
Level 3 — Intermediate
An eleven month rescue excavation on Zurcherstrasse in Windisch, Switzerland, undertaken ahead of a planned residential development, has revealed the defenses of Vindonissa's earliest Roman military camp, including an associated ditch and the remains of a wood and earth rampart.
The fortification, positioned roughly seventy meters south of the wall belonging to the later, better known legionary fortress, is believed to have been constructed during the early reign of Emperor Tiberius, who ruled from AD 14 to 37.
Archaeologists also uncovered a legionary barracks measuring nine meters wide and at least thirty meters long, its rooms and anterooms arranged with the regularity characteristic of standardized Roman military architecture.
The most striking artifacts recovered include a gold aureus bearing Tiberius's likeness, a carnelian gemstone engraved with Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, objects interpreted as possible handles from surgical scalpels, and a charred loaf of Roman bread, an unprecedented find within Switzerland.
- rescue excavation
- an archaeological dig carried out before construction destroys a site
- fortification
- a defensive structure built to protect a place
- reign
- the period during which a monarch or ruler holds power
- anteroom
- a small room leading to a larger, more important room
- standardized
- made to conform to a consistent, uniform pattern
- aureus
- an ancient Roman gold coin
- engrave
- to cut a design or text into a hard surface
- unprecedented
- never done or found before
Level 4 — Advanced
An eleven month rescue excavation on Zurcherstrasse in Windisch, Switzerland, undertaken in advance of a planned residential development known as Via Romana, has brought to light the defenses of Vindonissa's earliest identified Roman military camp, encompassing an associated ditch and the remnants of a wood and earth rampart.
The fortification, situated approximately seventy meters south of the wall belonging to the later, more extensively documented legionary fortress, is thought to have been erected during the early reign of Emperor Tiberius, who governed from AD 14 to 37.
Archaeologists further identified a legionary barracks measuring nine meters in width and at least thirty meters in length, its rooms and anterooms disposed with the regularity emblematic of standardized Roman military architecture.
Among the most consequential artifacts recovered are a gold aureus bearing Tiberius's likeness, a carnelian gemstone engraved with Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, objects construed as possible handles from surgical scalpels, and a charred loaf of Roman bread, a find without precedent within Switzerland.
- encompass
- to include a range of different elements
- remnant
- a small remaining part of something
- erect
- to build or construct something, typically upright
- govern
- to rule or have official control over a country or region
- dispose
- to arrange things in a particular position or order
- emblematic
- serving as a typical or symbolic representation of something
- consequential
- having significant effects or importance
- construe
- to interpret the meaning or nature of something
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