As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
A birthday invite penned on a thin wood tablet was discovered at the Roman fort of Vindolanda in the U.K.
(Image credit: The Print Collector/ Alamy Stock Photo )
Call: Birthday invite to Sulpicia Lepidina
What it is: A wood tablet with carbon-based ink
Where it is from: Vindolanda Roman fort, in Northumberland, U.K.
When it was made: A.D. 97 to 103
Related: Queen Puabi’s lyre: A bull-headed music maker bet Mesopotamian royalty 4,500 years ago
What it informs us about the past:
This wood tablet is the earliest recognized example of Latin composing by a lady, Claudia Severa, who welcomed her buddy Sulpicia Lepidina to her birthday celebration. The invite was discovered at the Roman fort of Vindolandawhere oxygen-free soil assisted protect various natural artifacts, consisting of shoes and outdoor camping devicesthat generally would have broken down gradually.
Get the world’s most remarkable discoveries provided directly to your inbox.
The postcard-sized tablet procedures 8.8 by 3.8 inches (22.3 by 9.6 centimeters), and the text was made with carbon-based ink on both sides.
One side of the letter names both the author and the addressee and checks out, “To Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of Cerialis, from [Claudia] Severa,” according to the British Museumwhere the item is housed.
The opposite is the celebration invite. The text, according to a translation from the British Museum, checks out as follows: “Claudia Severa to her Lepidina, greetings. On September 11, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you are present. Give my greetings to your [husband, Flavius] Cerialis. My [husband] Aelius [Brocchus] and my little son send him their greetings.”
MORE ASTONISHING ARTIFACTS
All of this text was most likely determined to a scribe, who composed it down in a slim, classy script. In a 2nd handwriting design in the lower-right corner, Claudia Severa herself has actually composed at the bottom of the invite in a less sophisticated script, “I shall expect you, sister. Farewell, sister, my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper, and hail.” Severa was plainly literate and able to compose the letter herself, her social status most likely permitted her routine usage of a scribe to pen missives on her behalf.
A minimum of 1,700 composing tablets have actually been recuperated from Vindolanda given that the One was discovered in 1973and they supply a remarkable look into the every day lives of Roman military households along Hadrian’s WallThe letter from Claudia to Sulpicia is the finest understood, as it is both a poignant tip of the significance of household and events, as well as the earliest example of a Roman female’s Latin handwriting.
Kristina Killgrove is a personnel author at Live Science with a concentrate on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her posts have actually likewise appeared in places such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Killgrove holds postgraduate degrees in sociology and classical archaeology and was previously a university teacher and scientist. She has actually gotten awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science composing.
Many Popular
Learn more
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
