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A Roman Writing-Tablet from London
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
The seventeen pieces of wood which together form the tablet here described (Guildhall Museum E.R. no. 444) were found on 10th February, 1959, 15 feet below street level in a timber-lined pit on the site of Temple House, Queen Street, in the City of London. Ink writing on the wood was at once recognized. Even in the wet and sodden state of the tablet Latin words could be made out and a preliminary copy was taken. The surface which showed writing was twice photographed by Mr. M. B. Cookson, of the Institute of Archaeology of London University, using infra-red light. The other surface, on which no writing could be discerned, was not photographed, unfortunately, since when the wood was bleached some traces of ink appeared on this side too, but were subsequently lost. The wood was then dried out, using the carbo-wax process, in the laboratory of the Guildhall Museum; to everyone's disappointment the ink was found to have vanished, and it seems as though the gum adhesive of the carbon ink must have been interfered with. The account given here of the contents of the tablet therefore rests entirely on a preliminary examination of the wood while it was still wet and on the photographs. One of the latter, together with a line drawing, is reproduced in plate XI.
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- Copyright © Eric G. Turner and Otto Skutsch 1960. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
References
1 We are grateful to Professor Pugliese Carratelli for drawing our attention to these. Cf. Pompeiana (Raccolta di studi per il secondo centenario di scavi di Pompeii, Naples, 1950), 11–12.
2 A codex ansatus is a dossier consisting of several polyptychs in a kind of carrying case fitted with a handle: see CIL X, 7852 = ILS 5947 = FIRA, I, Leges 59, and Mommsen, Gesch. Schr. V, 326 and 506; Not. Dign. Or. XIX, Occ. XVII Seeck; S. N. Miller, The Roman Fort at Balmuildy 59, and pl. XXVII, 5.