In 2003 , the BBC airedOur Top Ten Treasures , a TV special highlighting 10 treasured artefact get wind in the UK . Naturally , the listing went heavy on all that glisten : theMold gold cape , theSutton Hoo ship interment treasure , varioushoards , etc .
But it also featured theVindolanda lozenge , a massive collection of document unearthed at the site of what was once a key Roman fort in northern Britain . What the lozenge lack in luster they more than make up for with a wealth of sensational detail about what life was like on Rome ’s British frontier in its early days . Here are eight illuminating fact about them .
1. The Vindolanda tablets date back to early Roman Britain.
When Roman emperor ClaudiusinvadedBritain in the XL CE , he dispatched troops toestablish fortsacross the territory — a drill that continued after hisdeathin 54 CE . One such fort was lie with as Vindolanda , believed to have beenconstructedin 85 CE . It ’s located in modern - 24-hour interval Northumberland and just south ofHadrian ’s Wall , which Romanic troops started building to cross out and fight down the empire ’s northern border in 122 CE .
There were at leastnine iterationsof the Vindolanda fort fabricate over the next 500 years or so . Occupants would demolish their fort before pull up stakes , and the following William Lloyd Garrison wouldcover the sitewith Henry Clay and turf before leaven a wholly new fort . Thanks to shelter from those layers of sealer and the lack of atomic number 8 late underground , artefact from the pre - Hadrianic Vindolanda fort — admit the tablets — are unco well bear on .
2. The first tablet was discovered in 1973 …
student have long know that Vindolanda harbors grounds of itsancient Roman history : British archaist William Camdenmentionedso in his 1586 bookBritannia , and plenty of otherssurveyedthe site up through the mid-19th century . But modern scientific excavations did n’t really give up off until after archeologist Eric Birleyboughtthe country in 1929 . His Word , Robin Birley , finally joined him in the research and later need over the full labor .
It was Robin Birley who unearth the first Vindolanda lozenge in March 1973 : two flimsy , oily , incredibly fragile fragment of wood stick together . Plenty of other forest had been establish in this picky deposit , but nothing that give birth a handwritten content . In fact , almostno handwritten subject matter from this early geological era of Roman Britain had ever been found .
“ If I have to spend the respite of my spirit function in dirty , wet trench , I doubt whether I shall ever again experience the seismic disturbance and excitement I feel at my first coup d’oeil of ink hieroglyphic on tiny scrap of Sir Henry Joseph Wood , ” Birleywrote .
3. … And hundreds more have been discovered since.
Through further excavation , Birley and his team uncoveredsome 200more tablets — and the digging has n’t stopped since . Archaeologists are actively recovering artifact of all variety ( include onevery notable commode rear ) from Vindolanda today ; and the Vindolanda Trust , which frequent the workplace , estimatesthat only about one - fourth of the site has been excavated . To date , the number of Vindolanda pad of paper totalsmore than 1800 .
They no longer hold the championship for Britain’soldest handwritten document : That now belong to theBloomberg tablets , 405 wooden platesdiscoveredbelow a London part edifice in 2016 . The oldest of those dates back to sometime between 43 and 53 CE . But the Vindolanda tablets are still the gravid collection of handwritten documents from Romanist Britain .
4. Many, but not all, of the tablets are written in ink.
Some of the Vindolanda tablet are of the variety most associated with ancient Rome : a thin slab of wood covered in wax , into which you ’d move your content using a alloy stylus . Though the wax has typically worn away by the prison term modern - day archaeologist rediscover such items , you’re able to sometimes still see the word etched in the wood where the stylus pressed too deep . This is the guinea pig withcertain Vindolanda tablets .
But many others — include Birley ’s first find — were written in ink made from carbon paper , gum arabic , and body of water . Though historians know that ink tablets survive during this geological era , itwasn’t too commonto really find one , especially not in Britain . The sheer volume of those unearthed at Vindolanda in the 1970s were grounds that putting ink to wood was a steady practice in that area of Roman Britain at the time .
5. The first tablet confirmed that soldiers wore socks and underpants.
Birley ’s inaugural Vindolanda lozenge is n’t just famed for having been thefirstdiscovery . It also helped validate the long - held hypothesis that soldiers sometimesdonned socks and underclothes — clothing items that did n’t get eternise on monuments like other military garb did — in insensate weather .
One ( mostly ) clear section of themessagereads , “ I have sent ( ? ) you … span of sock from Sattua , two pair of sandal and two pairs of underpants . ” As Birleyput it , “ even if socks and underpants were not part of the soldier ’s unconstipated uniform , they were at least worn occasionally as extra clothing . ”
6. One tablet features a birthday party invitation.
officer were allow to bring their families to subsist with them at the forts , and some of the tablet bearmessagespassed to and from officers ’ married woman . In oneletter — often cited as theoldest handwritingby a woman in Britain — Claudia Severa invites her protagonist Sulpicia Lepidina to celebrate her birthday with her .
“ Claudia Severa to her Lepidina greetings . On 11 September , sister , for the day of the celebration of my birthday , I give you a strong invitation to make certain that you descend to us , to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival , if you are present , ” she wrote . “ Give my greetings to your [ husband ] Cerialis . My [ married man ] Aelius and little Word send him ( ? ) their greetings . ”
7. And another reveals contempt for the native Britons.
Not many of the Vindolanda tabletsdiscussthe part ’s aboriginal Britons , but onenotedoes refer to them asBrittunculi — a previously unknown terminus that meant something like “ wretched Britons ” or “ wretched piddling Britons . ” Clearly , the writer did n’t think much of them .
“ The Britons are unprotected by armor ( ? ) . There are very many cavalry . The cavalry do not utilize steel nor do the wretched Britons mount to discombobulate javelin , ” it reads .
Due to the dearth of save material from Vindolanda regarding the Britons — and the fact thatBrittunculihasn’t shown upanywhere else — it ’s problematic to pull back any ratiocination about the ecumenical mental attitude toward them . The setting of the note remain a mystery , too . It ’s been suggested that the Romans may have been assemble intel either to protect their own flock against the Britons or to find whether the Britons might beviable enlistee .
8. The tablets suggest that Latin was the Roman army’s lingua franca.
It ’s notable that the tablets ’ messages were written in Latin , because most of the soldier posted at Vindolanda were n’t Roman : They were appurtenant troops , which theempireenlisted from other territories andpaid lesswith a guarantee that they ’d be granted Roman citizenship after25 yearsof service . During its pre - Hadrianic catamenia , Vindolandaplayed hostto troops from modern - day Belgium , the Netherlands , andnorthern Spain .
“ You ’re take with lots of multitude who come from different backgrounds , and they have to be able-bodied to communicate with each other , ” archaeologistAndrew Birley , Robin ’s Word and the current managing director of excavation at Vindolanda , toldNational Geographic . And since the tablets feature everything from pay information to supply lists , it seems that keeping meticulous records — and , by nonpayment , being literate enough in Latin to do so — was an outlook in the Roman ground forces .
It was n’t just members of the war machine ( and their family ) who communicate in Latin : Enslaved citizenry did , too . In oneletter , an enslaved man distinguish Severus writes to another named Candidus regarding planning forSaturnalia , a Roman pagan fete celebrated in December : “ … for the Saturnalia , I necessitate you , brother , to see to them at a cost of 4 or six asses and Raphanus sativus longipinnatus to the value of not less than 1/2 denarius . ” ( Asseswere pig coins ; and each silverdenariuswas worth 10 asses . )
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