June 4, 2019 Comments Off on The Vindolanda tablets: the oldest evidence of Roman handwriting in Britain Views: 1041 Ancient Stories, Nostalgia

The Vindolanda tablets: the oldest evidence of Roman handwriting in Britain

The reach of the ancient Roman empire was fearsome. At their greatest, the Romans also conquered much of Britain and one of the most intriguing archeological sources that attest to their presence on the island is the Roman fort site of Vindolanda.

This site, first discovered in 1973, in the north of England, is famous for the Vindolanda tablets. These are slim pieces of wood that document the correspondence of Roman soldiers and officers, their spouses and other family members staying at Vindolanda, and people (merchants, slaves, etc.) based in other forts and cities including nearby Carlisle, London, Rome, Antioch, and Athens.

Military bathhouse at Vindolanda, © Simon Robinson, 2007, CC BY-SA 3.0

Over the years, archeologists and other experts have been able to reconstruct and decipher hundreds of these tablets. The Vindolanda tablets are important as they resemble some of the oldest handwritten documents ever found across Britain. Therefore, the majority of the tablets are kept at the British Museum in London. The tablets are dated to the period around the 1st century A.D., with some predating the building of the Hadrian Wall, which is found close to the Vindolanda site.

The Romans used different woods to produce tablets. At the Vindolanda site, these writing artifacts have survived, in anaerobic soils, in the largest number. Other archeological sites around Britain have also revealed tablet remnants although in less significant number.

Roman writing tablet from the Vindolanda Roman fort of Hadrian’s Wall, in Northumberland (1st-2nd century AD). Tablet 343: Letter from Octavius to Candidus concerning supplies of wheat, hides, and sinews. British Museum (London), Photo: Michel Wal, CC BY-SA 3.0

During production, the Romans specifically treated the wood so that they have a smooth surface for writing with ink. In case they needed to do a longer type of writing, they tied several tablets together. A single tablet had similar dimensions to an envelope today.

Some of the tablets contain administrative information such as lists on the garrison inventory or soldiers’ requests for leave of absence (e.g. “I ask you, Lord Cerialis, that you hold me worthy for you to grant me leave”). Some of the writing was more personal, revealing the voice of common people some 2,000 years ago. Soldiers wrote to each other often, the tablets reveal, but they also wrote to friends and family, which helps us better understand what kind of life these people had back then, at the far end of the empire (e.g. “A friend sent me 50 oysters from Cordonovi, I’m sending you half”).

Tablets on display at the British Museum in London, Photo: Mike Peel, CC-BY-SA-4.0

Some of the deciphered tablets reveal that people also enjoyed life and did the things that makeup life, such as celebrating their birthdays. The Vindolanda tablet that details a birthday party invitation is probably one of the oldest known birthday party invitations in the world, if not the oldest. It was authored by one Claudia Severa, married to a high-ranking soldier, and who lived sometime around 100 A.D. Some experts have considered this could as well be the oldest known message in Latin written by a woman.

This kind of information on the ways ancient Romans lived life is refreshing as for the most of times we soak information about what kind of battles their armies fought. It’s also frequent in the tablets that people exchanged updates on their health and well-being ( e.g. ” I am in good health… you most irreligious fellow who hasn’t even sent me a single letter”).

Tablet 291, written around A.D. 100: Invitation from Claudia Severa to Sulpicia Lepidina, ref Tab. Vindol. II 291 , Photo: Fæ, CC BY-SA 3.0

Other exciting deciphered text reveals how soldiers asked for liquor to be distributed at their premises, and at least one letter was aimed at the Roman emperor Hadrian, however, it’s uncertain whether this particular message ever reached him. The emperor is referred to as “Your Majesty” in the letter.

All tablets reveal the usage of Latin language which was standard for Rome. Not all of the writing is grammatically correct, however. Some of the inscribed tablets contain text that is entirely unintelligible.

Several decades after archeologists first stumbled upon the Vindolanda site, tablets are still being found in the area, which means an ongoing job of collecting, restoring the tablets (some appear in pieces), and deciphering the material. All excavation efforts are overseen by the Vindolanda Trust. A new corpus of about 25 tablets was discovered as recently as 2017 for instance.

Archaeologists at Work in Vindolanda. The archaeologists are excavating an area within the confines of the 3rd-century fort. Behind are the remains of the civilian settlement. Photo: Mick Garratt, CC BY-SA 2.0

Other intriguing finds around Vindolanda also include iron-crafted pen nibs, which helps us reconstruct how the ancient Romans wrote. The nib was affixed on a shallow, wooden handle where the ink was stored. Carbon and gum arabic were both used for ink production. Some of the nibs reveal fine embossing details, attesting to the skillful Roman blacksmiths of the day. The ink has disappeared over the past two millennia, thus experts rely on infrared technology to crack to recover the written text.