Bowman Alan K., Thomas J. David. Vindolanda: The Latin Writing-tablets

Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1983. — 180 p. — (Britannia Monograph Series 4).The Vindolanda writing-tablets were discovered during the excavation seasons of 1973-4 and 1974-5. They are now in the possession of the British Museum, which acquired them by purchase in 1981. The long interval between discovery and publication requires a word of explanation. It is due not only to the fact that the editors were hampered by other commitments and by the difficulties inherent in material which is, for the most part, fragmentary and hard to read, but also to the amount of time which had to be devoted to the crucial processes of conservation and photography. In fact, it was not until 1979 that we were satisfied that we had obtained photographs which were the best possible with the techniques currently available. Even so, we are conscious of the possibility of improving our readings and it may be that further experimentation, especially with the stylus tablets, which we have so far been completely unable to read, will produce significant progress. But since there is no firm prospect of such progress, it seems pointless to delay the publication further.