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To: SunkenCiv

I cannot read it, though I can pick out a few words like quod, est, possibly quadrantem, all abbreviations I recognise.
Most of it has been blotted out and it seems to me, please correct me anyone, that the lines in the middle of the lower tablet were current when he dropped it.
To get a clean slate, a tabula rasa, one would melt the wax.
Latin paleography is a tough subject. Latin cursive?? Whoah.

This type of tablet is used in a scene of the movie “Ben Hur”,
The wager. In this scene, Massala accepts the wager by pressing his signet ring into the wax. To collect his winnings the Sheik must produce the tablet as proof.
Some deals could be done on a clay tablet and the clay baked for permanence.
https://youtu.be/Fqxv7C9uTao


24 posted on 05/28/2026 7:04:27 AM PDT by BDParrish ("Do you see the CRJ)
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To: BDParrish
This type of tablet is used in a scene of the movie “Ben Hur”, The wager. In this scene, Massala accepts the wager by pressing his signet ring into the wax. To collect his winnings the Sheik must produce the tablet as proof. Some deals could be done on a clay tablet and the clay baked for permanence.

The wax method would work OK until Ben leaves the tablet in his chariot with the windows rolled up in the summer. I'd go with the clay option.

32 posted on 05/28/2026 9:37:16 AM PDT by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!)
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