Excavations were resumed at Vindolanda in the pre-Hadrianic section of the site in the summer of 1985. The prediction that the area was likely to contain further deposits of writing-tablets was strikingly confirmed and it can now be confidently stated that the publication, by the present authors, of the tablets discovered in 1973-5 was only the first instalment. It is as yet unclear when the full publication of the new finds can be expected or what precise form it will take. This is the justification, if any is needed, for presenting this summary account of the 1985 material. The inventory numbers under which the new tablets are catalogued run to almost 340; many contain several fragments; most, but not all, have at least traces of writing. It is at present envisaged that three more seasons of excavation will be undertaken in 1986, 1987 and 1988, investigating an area which extends some 15–20 metres to the north of the present terminus. There is some reason to think that the writing-tablet deposit may cover the whole or a substantial part of this area and it is therefore possible that the subsequent seasons may yield as many tablets as that of 1985.

Among the fragments of the tomb of the Haterii, discovered in 1848 on the Via Labicana, some three miles from Rome, and now in the Lateran Museum, are two scenes in low relief illustrating the burial. The first of these (plate IX) represents a very rare, if not unique, subject—the lying-in-state, as we should call it, in the atrium of the house. Confining our attention to the details which concern our immediate purpose, we see that the central object is the corpse of a lady extended on a high bed or bier, at the corners of which burn four tall torches standing on the ground, while at the head and foot is a lighted oil lamp on a candelabrum of rather smaller dimensions. Below, at either of the two front corners of the bier, is a small flaming vessel, probably the ‘acerra’ which Festus says was used for burning incense before the dead. In the personages who assist at the scene we may recognise the relations, the ‘praeficae’ or hired mourners, and various attendants, one of whom is apparently laying a wreath on the corpse, which is already crowned, while another on the right is about to throw more incense on to the ‘acerra.’