Vindolanda Tablets

Question 1

What are the Vindolanda tablets?

Answer 1

(Tutorial guide week 10)
Drafts or copies of messages dictated to an enslaved scribe who wrote them onto thin pieces of wood.

Question 2

What language are they written?

Answer 2

(Tutorial guide week 10)
Latin

Question 3

Where were they found? Where are they from?

Answer 3

(Tutorial guide week 10)
excavated from the remains of the Roman fort of Vindolanda, in northern Britain.
dumped in rubbish heaps where they were buried and preserved.
date from between 90 and 130 CE and the majority were written before the construction of Hadrian’s wall, slightly to the north of the fort.

Question 4

What are some of the challenges these tablets pose to historians?

Answer 4

(Francesca’s tutorial slides week 10)
gaps and question marks because there is non-standard Latin that is hard to translate, we don’t know the references, and tablets have been damaged or parts cannot be read (illegible);
From Lisa Grange email - Mostly between people of high rank (commanding officers, wives of commanding officers, and slaves with important roles). Some people left out: lower class soldiers, lower class women, children, and native Britons (villagers that support the army).

Question 5

Why did they use this material to write on?

Answer 5

(Francesca’s tutorial slides week 10)
Papyrus was not available there

Question 6

Value of tablets to historians

Answer 6

There are grocery lists, requests for supplies, recommendation letters, invitations, updates, and more all written to and from individuals of varying social classes, which help to reveal life at the fort (Tutorial guide week 10). By reading these communications, historians can begin to understand the food they ate, the supplies they needed, relationships between individuals, common writing etiquette, and what the daily life of these individuals may have looked like.

Question 7

Describe letter 19

Answer 7

addressed to Flavius Cerialis asking for his recommendation of Brigionus.

Question 8

Describe letter 20

Answer 8

asks for supplies that are unavailable in Vindolanda

Question 9

Describe letter 21

Answer 9

a birthday invitation addressed to Sulpicia Lepidina.

Question 10

Describe letter 26

Answer 10

a grocery list from one slave to another asking for items such as beans, chicken, apples, and fish sauce.