In England found 25 Roman letters

They were written in 85-92 years BC

25 thin wooden plates with text written in charcoal ink, found during the excavations of the Roman Fort Vindolanda in the North of England. Archaeologists suggest that the letter was written in 85-92 years BC.

Some signs are so well preserved that the text can be read even without high-tech research.

For the first time in Roman Vindolanda tablets found in 1973, only knows more than 1000 signs. This is one of the oldest written documents discovered in the UK. Despite the abundance of known labels, the large “treasures” of the dozens of letters remain rare, the last such set was found in 1992.

The new find belongs to the period of the founding of the first Fort on this site. The fortifications were rebuilt and expanded from 85 to 130 a year. Construction Vindolanda and other FORTS preceded the construction of the 120 years of Hadrian’s wall, a system of fortifications and walls with a length of 117 km.

Signs retained a lot of evidence about the daily life of the Roman camp. Among them are business letters — reports to the high command, lists sent to camp things. No less interesting are the personal documents. One of the most famous examples is the invitation to the feast, written by the wife of one of the generals of his acquaintance.

In the text there are two handwriting: the main part was performed by the scribe, the final fragment wrote myself a lady by the name of Claudia Severa. Signs tell you not only about household details, but also about the regional peculiarities of the Latin language of that period.

A new set of plates will complement existing knowledge about the life of the camp. Special attention of archaeologists drew double plate, made of oak. The details add up, reliably keeping the ink inside the text. Scientists suggest that this could be a particularly important document.

Most of the signs of Vindolanda written in the more common birch wood. Interesting and location of new signs in the soil. They lay along the line of the trench at frequent intervals — as if someone had read them on the go and then throw.

See also: the UK has discovered a unique artifact

At least one of the new tablets written is already known to archaeologists man. In one of the earlier open letters officer of the decurion Musculus asked to provide his soldiers with beer. In a new letter he appeals to the authorities asking for a small leave (commeatus). For further research, archaeologists photographed signs in the infrared range.

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