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A Roman Writing Tablet from Somerset

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Eric G. Turner
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Extract

The find in Roman Britain of a Latin writing tablet bearing a still legible ink inscription is of so unusual a nature that it has seemed worthwhile to offer a provisional account of it to readers of the Journal. It is probable that more of the text will eventually prove readable than I have managed to decipher; for I have failed to obtain a continuous text. Apart from the difficulties inherent in reading Latin cursive writing, the faintness at many places of the ink, discoloration of the surface, and above all, the frequently misleading horizontal grain of the wood offer obstacles that I have failed to surmount. It is also possible that laboratory treatment will succeed at some future date in separating the ink more clearly from its background, at least for photographic purposes. Experiments to achieve this are in progress, but they must inevitably proceed cautiously and therefore slowly. I believe, however, that enough of the writing has been made out to establish with reasonable certainty the type of text concerned, and that further success in decipherment, while it will fill in details, will not change the essential framework into which those details are to be fitted. It has seemed right, in consequence, not to delay longer but to submit the results achieved so far to the judgment of colleagues and hope that their criticisms and suggestions will make good the writer's failings. The accompanying plate (XII) will supply a means of check and supplement.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 1-2 , November 1956 , pp. 115 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © Eric G. Turner 1956. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 I owe the photograph to Mr. Brackenbury of University College, London. It is a triumph of the photographer's art and much easier to read than the original.

2 A preliminary account of the excavations has been given in JRS XLV (1955), 139–140, plates XLIX–LI.

3 (1) Wilcken, Chr., 463 (edict of Domitian). (2) P. Mich. 432, a quasi-diploma. (3) Bell, H. I., JRS XXVII (1937), 30 ff.Google Scholar, registration of birth, (4) B. M. Add. MS 41203. (5) P. Mich. 462, receipt for uicesima. Nos. 2–5 were all apparently prepared for wax and then used for ink.

4 Courtois, C., Leschi, L., Perrat, Ch., Saumagne, Ch., Tablettes Albertini (Actes privées de l'époque vandale), Paris, 1952Google Scholar.

5 See for example Bell, H. I. in JRS XXVII (1937), 31–2Google Scholar.

6 In the centre of the top border a crack in the wood may have had its origin in a deliberate nick intended to give purchase to a binding string. Such a nick is to be seen in the tablet now at Leeuwarden, Negotia, no. 137 (photo in Capelle, W., Das alte Germamen2 (Leipzig, 1937), 401)Google Scholar, or the one from London published by Richmond, I. A. in Antiquaries Journ., 33 (1953), 207CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Digesta, XVIII, 1, 59, Celsus, quoting Scaeuola; XXI, 2, 75, Venuleius, quoting Scaeuola and Sabinus; L, 16, 126, Proculus.

8 Arangio-Ruiz, Fontes iuris rom, anteinstin, 111, Negotia, no. 90, 1. 5: ‘eam domus partem … ita ut clao fixsa et optima maximaque est, <Andueia Batonis> h(abere) r(ecte) l(iceat).’

9 Arangio-Ruiz, l.c. no. 92, 11. 1–3: ‘Dama … fundum Baianum … uti optumus maxumusque esset … mancipio accepit.’

10 There are also parallels for individual phrases in some tablets from Herculaneum recently published by Arangio-Ruiz, and Pugliese-Caratelli, in La Parola del Passato, XXXIV (1955), 54 ff.Google Scholar, nos. LIX, LX, LXI.

11 It is almost impossible to assess the probabilities. Against this assumption it may be urged: (a) that the wood of the tablet not being native to Britain, the tablet may have been imported as a document rather than a blank (for the travels of Roman documents cf. the slave sale negotiated at Seleucia in Pieria, but found in the Fayum in Egypt, Negotia no. 132). (b) Even if the tablet was imported as a blank, the land concerned need not have been in Britain, since it was possible to mancipate away from the land, and the document might be a record of previous oral leges mancipi.

The first argument has too many unknown quantities to have much force. Even if larch was not native to Britain in Roman times, it may have been imported as timber. In any case other materials for writing (especially papyrus) would have to be imported and blank wooden tablets are likely to have formed a common article in the stationery trade. In view of the local application of the Transylvanian tablets, the prima facie possibility of a British location for the land must be seriously considered.

12 l. 1: emit manci[pioque accepit]. The restoration is justified by the opening phrase of Negotia, nos. 87–9.