Passage III

Reading an Unearthed Past

In 1973, archaeologist, Robin Birley, made the discovery of a lifetime, it's a thin piece of wood the size of a postcard. This unremarkable-looking object was, in fact, ancient correspondence dating to roughly AD 100. Discovered at the ruins of the Roman fort Vindolanda in northern Britain, this artifact had been sent to a soldier, along with sandals, socks, and underclothes. Just one of many such wooden documents found at the site. Known as the Vindolanda tablets, the fort is home to Britain's earliest handwritten documents. To date, over one thousand tablets have been discovered.

Still, the abundance of preserved tablets is mainly due to building practices at the fort. After demolishing obsolete structures, so Roman soldiers buried the ruins with soil and turf. Layers of clay combined with a wet environment that was free of the oxidizing affects with air resulted in conditions perfect for preserving organic artifacts for almost two thousand years.

While maintaining these ideal conditions when an artifact is excavated is essential. Bacteria, fungus, and oxidation can destroy a fragile tablet once it is unearthed. Therefore, when a tablet is found, researchers take measures to prevent it from drying out. After an excavated tablet has been removed from the fort, experts use ether and methyl alcohol to preserve it. As a final step before the preserved tablet goes into permanent, climate-controlled storage, infrared photography is employed to render the ink writing more visible, allowing researchers to determine how the tablet was used.

More than just ancient objects, the tablets provide rare historical insights about the people who lived and worked at Vindolanda. The correspondents were people from all over the fort. Some tablets held supply orders or inventories; some contained family letters; some featured student writing. As windows to the past, these artifacts reveal that all people should be able to express themselves.