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The flagstone looked slightly off. Its edge was unusually rounded, enough to make Andrew Birley pause as he knelt inside the remains of a Roman barracks in northern England.
He loosened the stone and turned it over. A face stared back.
The sandstone carving, discovered on June 16 at Vindolanda, depicts a Genius — a protective spirit that Romans associated with a household, community or place. Builders had laid the sculpture face down beneath a fourth-century barracks floor, where it remained largely untouched for more than 1,600 years.
It’s a rare physical glimpse of personal religion on Rome’s northern frontier. Inscriptions invoking such spirits appear across Roman Britain, but carved representations survive far less often. Because the Vindolanda relief emerged from a securely dated building, researchers can study not only what it meant but also how later residents treated it.
“My first thought was simply, ‘Who on earth am I looking at?’” Birley said in a statement released by the Vindolanda Trust.
A Genius Uncovered
The relief measures 44 centimeters, or about 17 inches, tall and was carved from a sandstone block eight centimeters thick. The figure carries a cornucopia in one hand, representing abundance and prosperity, and a patera in the other. Romans used these shallow dishes to pour wine and other offerings during religious rituals.
Those objects helped specialists identify the figure after Birley sent photographs to three scholars of Roman Britain: Lindsay Allason-Jones, Fraser Hunter and Alex Rome-Griffin. All three concluded within hours that the carving portrayed a Genius.
Romans did not restrict religion to monumental temples or state ceremonies. Households, workplaces, military units and settlements maintained relationships with spirits thought to protect their members and surroundings. Like in all times, people prayed and worshiped wherever they traveled. Archaeologists believe the Vindolanda carving once belonged to a domestic shrine, where residents may have left offerings while asking for security, prosperity or good fortune.
At some point, however, the shrine fell out of use. Builders apparently removed the sculpture and treated it as construction material, placing it beneath the barracks floor. Researchers do not yet know whether its burial carried any ritual meaning or whether someone simply needed a convenient slab of stone.
What’s more certain is that the conceilment probably saved it. With its carved surface pressed downward and sealed from wind, rain and repeated contact, the figure escaped much of the erosion that wears away exposed sandstone.
Archaeologists suspect a local mason made it, perhaps at Vindolanda or within a regional carving tradition connected to the Roman fort at Lanchester in County Durham.
A Fort Filled With Everyday Lives
Vindolanda stood just south of Hadrian’s Wall and housed successive communities from the late first century until the early fifth century. The army rebuilt the fort repeatedly, leaving behind overlapping floors, barracks, workshops and homes.
The site has become famous because its waterlogged ground has preserved objects that normally disappear. More than 1,700 thin wooden writing tablets record military orders, shopping lists and private correspondence, including a birthday invitation from one officer’s wife to another.
The Genius now adds another dimension to the site’s stock: what those residents feared, hoped for and asked the supernatural world to provide.
It also follows the discovery of a sandstone relief of the winged goddess Victory at Vindolanda, announced in 2025. That sculpture, found near infantry barracks, reflected the public imagery of military success. The new Genius is a guardian associated with a particular household or place rather than the empire’s triumphs.
The discovery carried an unusual personal resonance. Birley represents the third generation of his family to excavate Vindolanda. His grandfather, Eric Birley, began work there in the 1930s, while his father, Robin Birley, led the team that discovered the writing tablets in 1973.
After identifying the figure, Birley said it felt as though Vindolanda had quietly declared: “We approve of what you are doing.”
Conservators are now cleaning and studying the sculpture. The guardian will eventually go on display at the Vindolanda museum — no longer hidden beneath the feet of soldiers, but once again watching over the place it may have been carved to protect.
This story originally appeared on ZME Science. Want to get smarter every day? Subscribe to our newsletter and stay ahead with the latest science news.
