Cache of Roman letters discovered at Hadrian's Wall

Archaeologists excited about 25 tablets found at Vindolanda fort, site of 1992 discovery of hundreds of Roman documents

A cache of 25 Roman letters has been found at Vindolanda, the fort below Hadrian's Wall where the most famous documents from the Roman world were discovered in 1992, first-person accounts of cold feet, beer running short, and jolly birthday parties at the northernmost edge of the empire.

The tablets are still being conserved, before being scanned with infrared light which should make the faint marks in black ink legible, but the cursive script is invariably a cryptic crossword puzzle that will take experts many months to solve.