The Vindolanda tablets are fragments of wooden leaf-tablets with writing in ink[1] containing messages to and from members of the garrison of Vindolanda Roman fort, their families, and their slaves. For example there is a letter (Tablet 291) written around 100 AD from Claudia Severa,[2] the wife of the commander of a nearby fort, to Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of the commandant of Vindolanda, inviting her to a birthday party. First discovered by Robin Birley in the 1970s, pages continue to be found.
Until the discovery of the tablets, historians could only speculate on whether the Romans had a nickname for the Britons. "Brittunculi" (diminutive of Britto; hence 'little Britons') found on one of the Vindolanda tablets, is now known to be a derogatory, or patronizing, term used by the Roman garrisons that were based in Northern Britain to describe the locals.
Another of the tablets confirms that Roman soldiers wore underpants (subligaria)[3], and also testifies to a high degree of literacy in the Roman army.
The tablets are held at the British Museum, and a selection of them is on display in its Roman Britain gallery (Room 49).
The tablets were number 1 in the list of British archaeological finds selected by experts at the British Museum for the 2003 BBC Television documentary Our Top Ten Treasures which included an interview with Birley.
Line note references
- ^ Bowman, 1994
- ^ Birley, 2002
- ^ Vindolanda Tablets Online | Tablets | Print-friendly Tablets Display
Bibliography
- Birley, A., Garrison Life at Vindolanda: A Band of Brothers, Stroud: Tempus, 2002
- Bowman, A.K., Life and letters on the Roman frontier : Vindolanda and its people, London: British Museum Press, 1998, 2003
- Bowman, A.K. and J.D. Thomas, The Vindolanda Writing Tablets, London: The British Museum Press, 1994
- Bowman, A.K. and J.D. Thomas, The Vindolanda Writing Tablets III, London: The British Museum Press, 2003
External links
- Oxford University exhibit of digitized images of the tablets
- Las cartas de Vindolanda, testimonios escritos de los soldados de la Muralla de Adriano [in Spanish]
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Categories: Romano-British objects in the British Museum | Hadrian's Wall | History of Northumberland | Roman Britain | Palaeography | Latin inscriptions
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