Writing on Wood in Roman Britain: the Vindolanda Tablets

On Monday October 23rd the seminar “Writing on Wood in Roman Britain: the Vindolanda Tablets” will be held by Alan Bowman.

Seminar date: October 23rd 2023

 

On Monday October 23rd starting at 3 p.m. the following Mnamon seminar will be held online:

 

Alan Bowman (University of Oxford)

Writing on Wood in Roman Britain: the Vindolanda Tablets

 

 

Abstract The wooden writing-tablets from the fort of Vindolanda, to the south of Hadrian’s Wall, date to the period between 90 and 130 and and make a unique contribution to our knowledge of writing materials, documentary practices and literacy in the first century AD. The formats of the hundreds of tablets and the writing practices demonstrate the flexibility with which the materials were used for administrative documents and personal letters. The content and the variety of identifiable individual hands, the range of subject-matter and the palaeographical features of the texts afford a unique insight into writing practices and the literate environment across the Roman empire as a whole. These features will be illustrated by a number of individual examples which attest new and in some cases very surprising phenomena.

 

 

 

Link to video

 


Mnamon seminars videos on demand are available on the Mnamon portal or a playlist in the SNS YouTube channel at the address:
Mnamon seminars playlist

 

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