Roman writing equiptment

Archaeology (Verulamium Museum)

Roman writing equiptment including a metal stylus and wax tablet used for writing on. The scene is lit by a ceramic oil lamp. A message could be written on a wax tablet like this, and it could be sealed using wax and sent by messanger. To the right of the wax tablet is wax and an intaglio ring for making seals and seal boxes to protect them. At the top are thin wooden writing tablets which could be written on with ink from the ink pot at the top left. Because they are biodegradable, this type of tablets do not usually survive but around 1000 of this sort of tablets were found preserved in the anaerobic environment of peat at Vindolanda, near Hadrian's Wall.

PH3699writing.tif

Amy Cooke

1) Photo Studio

[not applicable].

05/07/2007