When you purchase through link on our land site , we may gain an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
Name : Birthday invitation to Sulpicia Lepidina
What it is : A wooden pill with carbon copy - based ink
A birthday invitation penned on a thin wood tablet was found at the Roman fort of Vindolanda in the U.K.
Where it is from : Vindolanda Roman garrison , in Northumberland , U.K.
When it was made : A.D. 97 to 103
relate : Queen Puabi ’s lyre : A Taurus - manoeuver music Lord play for Mesopotamian royalty 4,500 year ago
What it tells us about the past tense :
This wooden pad of paper is the former known example of Latin piece of writing by a woman , Claudia Severa , who invited her good friend Sulpicia Lepidina to her birthday company . The invitation was found at the Roman fort ofVindolanda , where oxygen - free soil helped maintain numerous constitutive artifacts , includingshoesandcamping equipment , that unremarkably would have disintegrated over clock time .
The post card - sized tablet measures 8.8 by 3.8 column inch ( 22.3 by 9.6 centimeters ) , and the text was made with C - based ink on both sides .
One side of the letter names both the author and the addressee and reads , " To Sulpicia Lepidina , married woman of Cerialis , from [ Claudia ] Severa , " according to theBritish Museum , where the physical object is housed .
The other side is the company invitation . The text , according to a displacement from the British Museum , reads as follows : " Claudia Severa to her Lepidina , salutation . On September 11 , sis , for the Clarence Day of the celebration of my birthday , I give you a affectionate invitation to verify that you come to us , to make the day more enjoyable for me by your comer , if you are present . Give my greetings to your [ husband , Flavius ] Cerialis . My [ married man ] Aelius [ Brocchus ] and my little son send him their greetings . "
— Sutton Hoo helmet : A gold- and jewel - encrusted relic with ties to Beowulf and a recede Anglo - Saxon Billie Jean King
— Roman scutum : An 1,800 - yr - old shield drop by a Roman soldier who likely conk out in battle
— Babylonian tablet carry on student ’s 4,000 - yr - old geometry slip
All of this text was in all likelihood dictated to a scriber , who compose it down in a slight , graceful script . But in a second hand style in the lower - veracious corner , Claudia Severa herself has written at the bottom of the invitation in a less graceful script , " I shall expect you , baby . Farewell , sister , my dearest soul , as I desire to prosper , and hail . " Although Severa was intelligibly literate and capable to publish the missive herself , her societal status likely allowed her steady use of a scriber to write missives on her behalf .
At least1,700 authorship tabletshave been recovered from Vindolanda since thefirst one was found in 1973 , and they provide an extraordinary glance into the daily liveliness of Romanist military family alongHadrian ’s Wall . But the letter from Claudia to Sulpicia is the well known , as it is both a touching reminder of the importance of family and celebrations , as well as theearliest exampleof a Roman woman ’s Latin script .
Hatnefer ’s heart Scarabaeus sacer : An exquisite ancient Egyptian gold necklace inscribed with the Book of the Dead
' If it was a human being , we would say that ’s a warrior ’s grave ' : arm - filled burial are shake up what we know about womanhood ’s persona in Viking smart set
Was it a Isidor Feinstein Stone tool or just a stone ? An archaeologist explains how scientists can tell the remainder
