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 ...
;’)
Wood. Wood can last a long time in wet burials. The ink may have been soot-based.
Or you could vacation in the Teutoburg Forest with General Varrus.
Or you could vacation in the Teutoburg Forest with General Varrus.
That’s fascinating. Believe it or not for the same structural strength a wood beam outperforms a steel beam in a fire. I’ve been in burned out buildings where the structural integrity of wood beams, particularly the older cuts, pre-1920s, is incredible given the amount of burn.
Steel will twist and deform. Wood is an incredible creation.
He’s too bossy, and stubborn. ;’)
Perhaps it was iron gall ink?
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