The Roman writing tablet
Product number:
3301
Roman wax tablet with metal stylus 7cm x 12cm
The Roman writing tablet consists of two wooden tablets covered with wax. The writing was carved into the black wax with the help of a pointed stylus made of metal or bone. If one wanted to erase what had been written, the wax was smoothed out again with the spade-shaped top of the stylus. The Romans wrote letters, messages or invoices on such writing tablets about 2000 years ago. Similar tablets were found during excavations in Aalen, Raingau, Heidenheim, Welzheim and at many other places along the Limes.
A product of the Samaritan Foundation.
Product information "The Roman writing tablet"
Interesting:
In 1875, excavators in Pompeii made a spectacular find: in a house on the Via Stabian, they came across more than 150 wooden tablets (tabula ceratae), once covered in wax, which belonged to the bookkeeping of the banker L. Caecillius Luncundus. It was not so much the writing material itself, but the abundance of the tablets and their information content regarding the banker's transactions that made the discovery so sensational.
For such statements and receipts, but also for other types of texts in everyday life such as letters, minutes, notes, messages and exercises in school lessons, one usually resorted to wooden tablets in various forms, on whose often whitened surface one initially wrote with ink.
They were quickly replaced by the more "recyclable" wax board. The writing was carved into the red-coloured wax with the help of a pointed metal or bone stylus. If one wanted to erase what had been written, the wax was smoothed out again with the spatula-shaped top of the stylus.
In 1875, excavators in Pompeii made a spectacular find: in a house on the Via Stabian, they came across more than 150 wooden tablets (tabula ceratae), once covered in wax, which belonged to the bookkeeping of the banker L. Caecillius Luncundus. It was not so much the writing material itself, but the abundance of the tablets and their information content regarding the banker's transactions that made the discovery so sensational.
For such statements and receipts, but also for other types of texts in everyday life such as letters, minutes, notes, messages and exercises in school lessons, one usually resorted to wooden tablets in various forms, on whose often whitened surface one initially wrote with ink.
They were quickly replaced by the more "recyclable" wax board. The writing was carved into the red-coloured wax with the help of a pointed metal or bone stylus. If one wanted to erase what had been written, the wax was smoothed out again with the spatula-shaped top of the stylus.