page_title: Vindolanda tablets
hierarchical_section_title: Vindolanda tablets
caption_attribution_description: English: Archaeologists at Work in Vindolanda. The archaeologists are excavating an area within the confines of the 3rd century fort. Behind are the remains of the civilian settlement.Deutsch: Kastell Vindolanda, Nordengland. Ausgrabungen unmittelbar am Westrand der Garnison. Im Hintergrund auf dem ansteigenden Gelände liegen Teile des Lagerdorfs (Vicus).
context_page_description: The Vindolanda tablets were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. They are a rich source of information about life on the northern frontier of Roman Britain. Written on fragments of thin, post-card sized wooden leaf-tablets with carbon-based ink, the tablets date to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Although similar records on papyrus were known from elsewhere in the Roman Empire, wooden tablets with ink text had not been recovered until 1973, when archaeologist Robin Birley, his attention being drawn by student excavator Keith Liddell, discovered some at the site of Vindolanda, a Roman fort in northern England.
  The documents record official military matters as well as personal messages to and from members of the garrison of Vindolanda, their families, and their slaves. Highlights of the tablets include an invitation to a birthday party held in about 100 AD, which is perhaps the oldest surviving document written in Latin by a woman.
  The excavated tablets are nearly all held at the British Museum, but arrangements have been made for some to be displayed at Vindolanda.
context_section_description: The Vindolanda tablets were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain (they have now been antedated by the Bloomberg tablets). They are a rich source of information about life on the northern frontier of Roman Britain. Written on fragments of thin, post-card sized wooden leaf-tablets with carbon-based ink, the tablets date to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD (roughly contemporary with Hadrian's Wall).  Although similar records on papyrus were known from elsewhere in the Roman Empire, wooden tablets with ink text had not been recovered until 1973, when archaeologist Robin Birley, his attention being drawn by student excavator Keith Liddell, discovered some at the site of  Vindolanda, a Roman fort in northern England.
  The documents record official military matters as well as personal messages to and from members of the garrison of Vindolanda, their families, and their slaves. Highlights of the tablets include an invitation to a birthday party held in about 100 AD, which is perhaps the oldest surviving document written in Latin by a woman.
  The excavated tablets are nearly all held at the British Museum, but arrangements have been made for some to be displayed at Vindolanda. The texts of 752 tablets had been transcribed, translated and published as of 2010. Tablets continue to be found at Vindolanda.
caption: Archaeologists at work in Vindolanda, 2006
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix S5000", "Image Software": "Digital Camera FinePix S5000 Ver3.00", "Image DateTime": "2006:04:30 13:02:51", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "188", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/85", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:04:30 13:02:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:04:30 13:02:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "32/5", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "111/20", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "57/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2816", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2120", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5263", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "5263", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}