Vindolanda

The ancient Romans were the dominant political, military, and cultural presence in the Mediterranean and most of western Europe for thousands of years. At the height of the Roman Empire their borders reached from Spain to Armenia and England to Egypt. Their legacy is still with us today in countless ways. One of their major contributions was to language and writing. The Romans were builders. Their road systems and city designs made communication across their vast empire easy and efficient. The ease of communication paired with widespread military education for men and domestic education for women facilitated high literacy among not only citizens but the assimilated foreigners. One of the richest examples of the Roman presence is the unearthed writing from Vindolanda, an ancient fort maintained on the British Roman border between the years 90-130 AD.

The excavations at Vindolanda in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s uncovered piles of ancient tablets, papyrus and leaf books. These fragments were written by military personnel along with their wives and slaves. They wrote about everything from simple lists to complicated military orders to social invitations and personal letters. It is apparent from these finds that writing was an important and widespread practice in ancient Rome. The variety of writing and their places of origin indicate that writing was becoming standardized and formalized throughout the empire.

The Vindolanda finds also shed light on the writing material used in the ancient world. There were some papyrus fragments but the discoveries indicate that wax tablets and leaf books were the prominent writing support and format. Wax tablets were about the size of a paperback book. Wax was spread across the wood and the writing would then be impressed into the wax with a stylus. The advantage of the wax tablets was that they could easily be reused.

Fabricated by Pamela Borrios for the Book Art Program,
Special Collections, J.Willard Marriott Library,
University of Utah

The leaf books are made of very thin slices of birch, alder, and oak. These were then folded in half and may have been sewn to other folded leaves.

The writings found at Vindolanda are not only important to understanding ancient Rome; they are important examples of the Roman influence on the development and standardization of languages and writing. Wax tablets and leaf books add an important element to the history and evolution of the look and feel of the book.