Posted on 09/29/2010 8:09:41 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Britain's favourite treasures, the Vindolanda Tablets, are coming home to Tynedale.
The world famous wooden blocks, detailing the minutiae of life in Roman Britain, will be housed at Vindolanda, near Bardon Mill, where they were first discovered in a muddy ditch in 1973.
A £4 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has made it possible to bring nine of the precious artefacts back to the Roman fort and museum, where they will go on permanent display.
After the initial find, by former Vindolanda Trust director Robin Birley in 1973, around 400 of the perfectly preserved archaeological treasure chests have been unearthed.
The Vindolanda Tablets are widely regarded as Britain's most important historical find. In a poll of the country's top historians, they were voted the best in Britain.
As well as routine military matters concerning the running of the fort, the tablets include the equivalent of postcards written by Roman soldiers to send back home to loved ones living throughout the vast Roman Empire between the first and second centuries AD.
One of the most fascinating tablets is an invitation to a birthday party written by the commander's wife to a friend.
The invitation is one of the earliest known examples of writing in Latin by a woman.
The tablets are written in Roman cursive script and throw light on the extent of literacy in the Roman Army.
(Excerpt) Read more at hexhamcourant.co.uk ...
|
· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe · |
|||
Antiquity Journal & archive Archaeologica Archaeology Archaeology Channel BAR Bronze Age Forum Discover Dogpile Eurekalert LiveScience Mirabilis.ca Nat Geographic PhysOrg Science Daily Science News Texas AM Yahoo Excerpt, or Link only? |
|
||
|
· Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword · |
|||
I must be really tired.
I thought this was another FDA recall.
Lol! Step away from the keyboard, really, you can do this.
:-)
How could FDA be recalled, he died in 1945!
Thanks JPB!
But I just *got* here!
[went shopping for 6 hours....that’s my alibi and I’m stickin’ to it]
“Sal “Shops Til She Drops” Amander
*rimshot*
;D
What materials are the tablets that they could last so long and be found in a muddy ditch? How did the ink writing stay stable?
Rim Shot
Click the Pic J
LOL!
Thanks.
Stealing it....:)
Ack!
You’re fencing it, now!
Looks like they might have had a halfway rational system of writing and spelling at that time. I’m convinced English inherits its fubar spelling system from French.
old english was pretty rational as well. While a lot of our silent consonants weren’t silent in the middle english period and from what I can see consonant use at least resembles how the word was once pronounced, the absolute lack of any vowel-use norms makes english vowel pronunciation as much memorization as anything for many cases.
I thought it was a new iPad.
Apparently it is an old iPad.
PaleoPad
:)
;’) A career in the Roman army was a great choice, y’know, three square a day, wine, bread, roof over the head, learn lots of skills, use those skills, and of course, the old saying — meet interesting people and kill them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
