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Our Top Ten British Treasures
The Vindolanda tablets
Vindolanda was one of the main military posts
on the northern frontier of Britain before the building of
Hadrian's Wall. Exacavations there in 1973 uncovered
writing tablets which had been preserved in waterlogged conditions
in rubbish deposits in and around the commanding officer's
residence. These, and hundreds of other fragments which have come
to light in subsequent excavations, are the oldest surviving
handwritten documents in
Britain.
Most of the
tablets are official military documents relating to the auxiliary
units stationed at the fort. However, others are private letters
sent to or written by the serving soldiers. The content is
fascinating, giving us a remarkable insight into the working and
private lives of the Roman garrison. They also display a great
variety of individual handwriting, which adds to our knowledge of
Roman cursive writing around AD
100.
The tablets are not
made of wood and wax, previously thought to be the most popular
medium for writing in the Roman world apart from papyrus. Instead
they are wafer thin slices of wood, written on with carbon ink and
quill-type pens. Even after specialised conservation the exacavated
tablets are fragile and require a carefully controlled
environment.
Illustration:
a business letter from Octavius, an entrepreneur supplying goods on
a considerable scale to the Roman army