Roman Manuscripts from Carlisle: The Ink-Written Tablets

Abstract

The famous Vindolanda tablets are still the largest collection of Roman manuscripts written in ink on wooden leaves instead of papyrus. They were also the first to be discovered; but coincidentally in 1973, when Robin Birley found the first Vindolanda tablet, the late Dorothy Charlesworth began to excavate the southern limits of the Roman fort at Carlisle, in Annetwell Street. Here she was succeeded in 1981 by Ian Caruana, whose own excavations first (1981–4) on the site of the new extension to Tullie House Museum (Trench A), and then (1990) on the site of the BBC Radio Cumbria building (Trench H), discovered ink-written tablets contemporary with those from Vindolanda. Fragmented though they are, they complement the Vindolanda tablets: Carlisle in c.a.d. 100 was the most important Roman base in North-West Britain. In quantity its ink tablets come second — a poor second – to Vindolanda; but only to Vindolanda, it may be added. They have a quality of their own, in particular some unique evidence (1 and 16) of the consumption of barley, wheat, and weapons by a cavalry regiment, and a tantalizing fragment (44) which names the probable regiment, the ala Gallorum Sebosiana, and alludes to the province's best-known governor, Gnaeus Iulius Agricola. The whole collection is published here with commentary; and for citation I suggest Tabulae Luguvalienses, abbreviated to Tab. Luguval.

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