The Greatest Treasure

      The TV show Meet the Anscestors had a special episode (yah, it was on BBC Television... a favorite cable channel of mine...) called "Our Top Ten Treasures"--British experts voted on the most important treasures found in Britain. Among the top ten treasures  was a chess set from around 1150 A.D., a solid ceremonial gold cape from 1900-1600 B.C., and a gold cup from about 1700-1500 B.C. 



 Some of the Vindolanda Tablets--Britain's Greatest Treasure

   
    The Greatest treasure, however, was the Vindolanda Tablets--they are estimated to have been written in the late first century A.D. They are considered the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. They are wooden tablets with ink on them. They were made from birch, alder, and oak--there are nearly 500 of these, though most of them are broken and somewhat indecipherable.

      So, basically, I just want to highlight some of the most interesting tablets found in the Vindalonda Tablets and what we learn from them.

Letter from Octavius: Tablet 343

Here is a translation of the four tablets above, written by Octavius, a military supplier, to his brother (you can just read the good parts I highlighted if you want):

'Octavius to his brother Candidus, greetings. The hundred pounds of sinew from Marinus - I will settle up. From the time when you wrote about this matter, he has not even mentioned it to me. I have several times written to you that I have bought about five thousand modii of ears of grain, on account of which I need cash. Unless you send me some cash, at least five hundred denarii, the result will be that I shall lose what I have laid out as a deposit, about three hundred denarii, and I shall be embarrassed. So, I ask you, send me some cash as soon as possible. The hides which you write are at Cataractonium. - write that they be given to me and the wagon about which you write. And write to me what is with that wagon. I would have already been to collect them except that I did not care to injure the animals while the roads are bad. See with Tertius about the 8½ denarii which he received from Fatalis. He has not credited them to my account. Know that I have completed the 170 hides and I have 119 modii of threshed bracis. Make sure that you send me cash so that I may have ears of grain on the threshing-floor. Moreover, I have already finished threshing all that I had. A messmate of our friend Frontius has been here. He was wanting me to allocate (?) him hides and that being so, was ready to give cash. I told him I would give him the hides by 1 March. He decided that he would come on 13 January. He did not turn up nor did he take any trouble to obtain them since he had hides. If he had given the cash, I would have given him them. I hear that Frontinius Iulius has for sale at a high price the leather ware (?) which he bough here for five denarii apiece. Greet Spectatus and ... and Firmus. I have received letters from Gleuco. Farewell.'

Back: '(Deliver) at Vindolanda'

Here's a close-up of one of the tablets in the letter.

    The Vindolanda tablets have given us a lot of insight into Roman culture and Roman writing tradition. For example, from this letter, we see use of the Roman Calendar, giving us some idea of their dependence on it. We also see that however colloquial Octavius' style is in this letter, the mispellings and offsets (the ink was obviously wet when he folded this letter) in the text suggest he was in a hurry when he wrote it. We also see the use of Roman Cursive, a more informal handwriting style than the Roman square capitals we see engraved in stone columns and stuff...

   Because the closing of the letter is in the same handwriting as the rest of it, it is clear the Ovtavius wrote this letter himself.

Birthday Invitation: Tablet 291

Tablet 291--I just wanted to point out the important parts

    Probably the most famous of the Vindolanda tablets is Tablet 291--an invitation to a birthday party from Claudia Severa, wife of Aelius Brocchus. Here is the English translation:

"Claudia Severa to her Lepidina greetings. On 11 September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you are present (?). Give my greetings to your Cerialis. My Aelius and my little son send him (?) their greetings. (2nd hand) I shall expect you, sister. Farewell, sister, my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper, and hail. (Back, 1st hand) To Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of Cerialis, from Severa."

    Not only is this tablet significant because it is Latin written by a woman, but the two handwriting styles is interesting, too. The "1st hand" is professional style--lots of ascenders and descenders, as you can see. This was probably written by the household scribe. Then we see Claudia's personal greetings added in the lower right hand corner. This tablet especially sheds light on the extent of literacy in the Roman Empire, specifically at their fort in Vindolonda.

Soldiers and Underpants: Tablet 196
       This tablet is a list of clothing and household goods, written by a soldier.

        There are a couple things about this tablet that I wanted to point out, just kind of significant:

1. This was written by a soldier in the Roman army--this tablet, in addition to the several others found written by soldiers demonstrates the relatively high degree of literacy in the Roman army, and the value of literacy at this time in their history.
2. This list includes underpants. Roman soldiers wore underpants.
3. The use of "interpunct" ( is a small dot used for interword seperation in Latin Script) in this list--it occurs consistently in the list except after monosyllables. So instead of putting a space between words, he used a dot to separate them. We've replaced interpunct with spaces permanently now.

"Brittunculi": Tablet 164
     The fort of Vindalonda in Britain was built by the Roman Empire around 122 A.D. Historians have wondered how the Romans viewed indigenous Britons. In Tablet 164 we find the word "Brittunculi"-- "little Britons" Does that clarify things for us? This was obviously a derogatory or patronizing term used by the Romans to describe the locals.  

Tablet 164

   Here is the English translation:

"... the Britons are unprotected by armour (?). There are very many cavalry. The cavalry do not use swords nor do the wretched Britons mount in order to throw javelins."

    This tablet has interpunct as well. Experts who have studied this tablet have no explanation for line 6's indentation. If you look closely, you can see that the text goes across the grain of the wood ("transversa charta"). This, in addition to the fact that it is written in cursive, make it unlikely that it was a literary text. Historians' best guess is that it is "a military memorandum of some kind which describes the fighting characteristics and qualities of the native Britons with particular reference to cavalry."


     The Vindolonda tablets are on display at the British Museum, and can be found online. As much as I have read about Roman writing systems and Roman writing tradition, these tablets make clear the role that writing played in ancient Rome. We have a letter from brother to brother, a birthday invitation, a laundry list, and a military record. The diversity of the four tablets I selected found at this one fort demonstrate the importance of writing in this society--it was commonly used ( and by that I mean common in the sense that it wasn't unusual and common in the sense that it wasn't used only by elites). The amount of light that the Vindolanda tablets shed on the extent of Roman literacy truly to make them invaluable to our understanding--they truly are our greatest treasure!