Andiamo Italia: More Vindolanda Roman Tablets Found!

Vindolanda Tablet, No.118f, Inventory No. 85.137

Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents and The British Museum/CC BY

In 1992, Dr. Robin Birley first excavated the Vindolanda tablets, which include lists and correspondence written by women, soldiers, merchants and slaves who lived at a Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall in northern England in the 1st century BCE.

However, just recently more tablets were discovered! On June 22, 2017, Dr. Andrew Birley, (interestingly, he is Dr. Robin Birely's son) and his archaeological team found a new cache of Vindolanda wood tablets dating from the 1st century BCE. There are 25 tablets that survived and include correspondence and lists. While the text has yet to be made available, Dr. Andrew Birley stated that some of the tablets can be read with the naked eye.

Ink (from a quill pen) was used to write on these wood tablets. The tablets are approximately the size of a modern postcard and survived in damp soil by being protected by other wooden tablets. It is an amazing find and I am looking forward to seeing photographs and text of these 2,000 year old writings. For more information generally about the newly discovered tablets, click here: Vindolanda.

The Vindolanda Tablet, No. 118f, Inventory No. 85.137 (pictured above) is thought to be a student exercise since the carefully written script is Vergil, which was used often for practices. On the other side of the wood tablet is a letter. Probably the draft letter was written first, then the other side was used for practice but it could have been the other way around. For more information about this tablet, go to Vindolanda Tablet No.118f

To read the original Vindolanda tablets go to Vindolanda Tablets Vol. I and II and Vindolanda Tablets Vol. III.

Here's a few more photographs of the tablets found in 2002: