Hand me a Q-Tip, We're making Diptychs!

  
diptych:  device with two flat plates attached at a hinge
Plus, let me explain my awesome joke in the title:  Q-tips....ear wax... wax tablets.... 

A Riddle

   "Of honey-laden bees I first was born,  
     But in the forest grew my outer coat;  
     My shoes from tough hides came.  An iron point   
     In artful windings cuts a fair design, 
     And leaves long, twisted furrows, like a plow...." 
                    (Riddle 32:  Pitman 18-19)

 
This riddle, written by Aldhelm
in the late seventh century, demonstrates the universiality of wax tablets, and they were popular for a reason! I'll talk about this later, but first I just want to talk about the role that diptychs played in the transmission of knowledge. For the scholar (young or old, though wax tablets in ancient Rome are usually associated with schoolboys) wax tablets were an invaluable tool for thousands of years (the oldest found diptych has been dated back to the 14th century B.C.!) As I used our diptych, I recognized how accessible it made knowledge. I compare to whiteboards today (they're used in the exact same way, and have the same characteristics). On a whiteboard, I practice math proofs, I write notes to myself (things I will need to know in the near future, but not forever), I get things out that I need to see visually to facilitate my understanding--in Calculus I used a whiteboard almost every day! Similarly, wax tablets were not just a container for the type of knowledge that has a short shelf life: they facilitated learning. The existence of wax tablets demonstrates, to me, the role writing plays in expediting, improving, promoting the process of  learning. Transmitting knowledge from one person to another is made easier through writing, and wax tablets provided an inexpensive, reusable way to achieve that.   
  
Using a Diptych


Don't mind me... I'm just going over my notes

  In the Ancient world, diptychs were quite popular, used "for recording notes, and for measuring time and direction"1. You can see in the picture to the right that you would have the wax protected by being inside. I've seen diptychs with wax on both the inner faces and then, like this one, with the wax on one side and just a protective cover (reproductions of Roman wax tablets, however, almost always have two wax faces on the inside). As we talked about in class, papyrus was expensive (especially when you're giving it to kids) and, lets face it, easily destrucible (your notes are valuable! and vulnerable on papyrus!) Wax tablets provided a waterproof medium for preserving knowledge. And it had the additional perk of being semi-permanent--you could just rub out with the flat end of your stylus anything you carved into it! Carving into wax is also, by the way, much easier than carving into stone...

     In the Roman group, we created a diptych, modeling it after those used by the Romans. Here is my reflection on the process of making wax tablets and some insight I gained in the process.

The Process
      We decided on making a wax tablet rather than wooden ones or even making Roman papyrus because, as students, wax tablets would have been what we actually used. Plus it's a pretty forgiving medium as far as writing an inscription goes. Here is our process in making the wax tablets:

1. Craft Store: Jared and I went to the craft store looking for wood (for the frame of the tablet), wax, and a carving knife (not for carving into the wax, for carving the holes for the binding).
2. Melting the wax: Once we got with Maddie and Marc, we melted the wax and pured it into the wooden frames we bought, our tablets!
3. Carving our inscription: Once we decided on the phrase we were going to inscribe, Maddie began our carving. There were a couple mess-ups (thank goodness for the malleability of wax) and at one point I put our tablet in the microwave to remelt it. Dumb.
4. Carving the holes: I carved the holes with my new whittler's knife!

Reflection
   Can I just say that I am glad I don't use a wax tablet at school every day? Because I am! Making the tablets was one thing--I expected that to be a mess. Carving into the wax was unexpectedly messy though. For one, you have to pick up your stylus after every. single. stroke. I am used to the fluidity of writing on paper! Picking up the pen multiple times in a word or a sentence is ok, but multiple times in a single character is...obnoxious.  And you have to actually apply pressure when carving into wax, which is kind of intimidating for some reason.
    Also, I have a hard time even looking at eraser marks on my paper after a goof. Once you carve into your reusable wax tablet, however, the beauty of it is pretty much lost forever unless you remelt the wax. Wax shavings curled up as we wrote...unsightly! The only way of having a clean-looking tablet is to never write on it. Which totally defeats the purpose. gahhh.
    As we worked on our inscription, we did a lot of collecting the shavings and recycling them by rubbing them back into the face of the tablet--I even made a little wax ball which I later melted and poured back onto/into the tablet. I think if I were to use our tablet every day, though.... I'd get sick of rubbing out and re-filling the little grooves made by my stylus. I'd definitely start writing lighter and lighter so that erasing wasn't so time-consuming, maybe i'd even invent a simpler hand to write in! I can see myself carrying around a little propane torch for a quick reformatting of my wax drive!!! ( I crack myself up!)
     All that being said, I can totally see how wax tablets were useful--diptychs were a way of preserving knowledge temporarily. Either you kept it until it was written down on a more permanent medium or until the knowledge was no longer relevant (a shopping list, for example--no need for permanence there!) St Augustine 2, who Dr. Petersen brought up in lecture, was known to have used wax tablets when he was writing the rough draft of a letter--it was a common practice!

I refer you to Marc Wein's blog for pictures of the process. I guess I just respect an informal Copyright on them.