A group of archaeologists have renewed excavations at the site of the famed Vindolanda Tablets, first found in the 1970s. A report in July told of another find of letters like the ones already enshrined in the lore of archaeological finds that include the oldest-known handwriting in Latin by a woman.

The swords were in adjacent rooms in the remains of the cavalry barracks. Both swords were made of iron. The pommel of one contains a polished stone.

Also unearthed were arrowheads, combs, hairpins, shoes, and writing tablets.

The fort at Vindolanda dates to the 1st Century A.D., before the construction of the famed Hadrian's Wall, built to consolidate Roman gains against roaming tribes to the north, in what is now Scotland. More than 1,000 soldiers, along with their families and slaves, are thought to have lived there in the handful of centuries that the fort was in operation.