The Guardian view on archaeology and writing: the world-building power of small thoughts | Editorial

A cold Roman soldier is promised new socks, while his commander's wife invites her peers to party: mundane texts offer priceless historical insights

For the average museum-goer the romance of archaeology is inextricably bound to extravagant displays of power and riches: Egyptian pharoahs in their gilded sarcophaguses, China's extraordinary Terracotta Warriors, the gold and jewellery of ancientRome. Inthe field, it is the remnants of mighty fortifications and sumptuous palaces, the imprint of catastrophic events, that people cross continents to visit.

Few of the thousands who traipse along Hadrian'sWall to the Roman fort of Vindolanda each year would go out of their way to see two of thetreasures discovered there, both now at the BritishMuseum. One is a birthday invitation from the wife of the fort commander to a friend, including greetings from her husband and my little son". The other is a letter to a soldier promising socks, sandals and underpants to protect him from the Northumberland cold. Yet these messages offer sharpand human insight into colonial life in a remoteoutpost of empire nearly 2,000years ago. Moretablets are still being unearthedby archaeologists racing against the effectsof climate change.