![Bloombergwritingboards](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Bloombergwritingboards.jpg)
The Bloomberg tablets are a collection of 405 preserved wooden tablets that were found at the site of the Bloomberg building in the
financial district of London. Excavations of the site took place between 2010 and 2013, after which the
current Bloomberg building was constructed on the site of the archaeological dig.
The
tablets are the earliest written documents found in Britain, dating from 50 to 80 AD in the early
Roman period
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
. Notably, these tablets predate the
Vindolanda tablets
The Vindolanda tablets were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain (they have since been antedated by the Bloomberg tablets). They are a rich source of information about life on the northern fr ...
, which were previously the earliest writing examples found in Britain, dating to 100 AD or later.
Discovery
The Bloomberg site consists of three acres in what was the Roman city of
Londinium
Londinium, also known as Roman London, was the capital of Roman Britain during most of the period of Roman rule. It was originally a settlement established on the current site of the City of London around AD 47–50. It sat at a key cross ...
. The archaeological site had previously yielded a 3rd-century
Temple of Mithras
The London Mithraeum, also known as the Temple of Mithras, Walbrook, is a Roman Mithraeum that was discovered in Walbrook, a street in the City of London, during a building's construction in 1954. The entire site was relocated to permit continu ...
, which was partially excavated in the 1950s, but this effort was incomplete, and
Bucklersbury House, a 14-storey modernist office block, was built atop the site in 1953. However, the demolition of the Bucklersbury building in 2010 gave archaeologists a chance to reopen the dig. Between 2010 and 2013, a multitude of artefacts were discovered at the site, including the Bloomberg tablets, discovered buried 40 feet underground.
The Bloomberg tablets were an unexpected find, as organic material such as wood and leather tends to rot away and disintegrate with time. The tablets were preserved by the thick, wet mud generated by the underground river
Walbrook
Walbrook is a City ward and a minor street in its vicinity. The ward is named after a river of the same name.
The ward of Walbrook contains two of the City's most notable landmarks: the Bank of England and the Mansion House. The street runs ...
, which limited the exposure of the tablets to oxygen. Though there was limited exposure to oxygen, the tablets were originally found in a waterlogged condition. They were then cleaned under running water with a soft brush so as to not damage the tablets and preserve the contents.
Construction
The tablets were originally made of wood and wax, though only the wood was preserved and recoverable. A typical tablet would have been made of a thin piece of wood, 15–25 cm wide, with a rectangular depression carved into the centre. Warm beeswax, blackened by the addition of
atramentum
Atramentum or atrament, generally means a very black, usually liquid, substance. For example, an octopus may emit a puff of atrament (see cephalopod ink).
In ancient Rome, the term ''atramentum'' signified any black colouring substance used for a ...
, would then be poured into the centre depression and allowed to cool. Once the wax had set, a metal stylus would be used to scratch letters into the wax, showing a lighter colour against the darker wax.
These
wax tablets
A wax tablet is a tablet made of wood and covered with a layer of wax, often linked loosely to a cover tablet, as a "double-leaved" diptych. It was used as a reusable and portable writing surface in Antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. C ...
could also be recycled, in that the tablet could be heated (to approximately 50 °C), allowing the wax to soften and reform a smooth writing surface.
The tablets were likely made from wood recycled from barrel staves, and often were made in diptych style, where two tablets were loosely linked and could fold together to close, like a book with only two pages, protecting the soft wax on the inside. Evidence suggests the tablets were made from staves due to the discovery of several staves and glazing objects at the site alongside the tablets. These staves are of the same type of wood (silver fir) as the tablets. However there were two ink leaf tablets inscribed with a pen that were discovered at the same site
Modern efforts
![Bloomberg-writing board](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Bloomberg-writing_board.jpg)
Re-creation
Although the wax from the tablets was not preserved, small scratches left on the surface of the wooden tablets allowed for a recreation of the original writing content. These scratches, though perhaps not identifiable with the naked eye, can be visualised and digitally recreated with the assistance of technology. To make the digital recreation of the writing, photographs were taken using different angles of light and thus casting different shadows upon the tablet surface. Once compiled, these pictures gave a precise view of the surface contours of the tablets, the impressions made in the wood, and thus a look at what was written on the tablet. However, since these tablets were made to be reusable, several overlapping messages may be present on the tablets, making it even more difficult to separate and translate the many messages.
Translation
Ninety of the Bloomberg tablets have been translated. This is the highest number of translated artefacts from any archaeological site in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, surpassing the previous record of 19. Alongside the 90 translated tablets are another 91 stylus tablets, all which have been inscribed but are considered illegible. The 90 translated tablets have been grouped according to the content translated within, 43 of these tablets contained general correspondence, 25 of them were financial or legal documentation, 8 tablets were book keeping accounts showing what people owed and the remaining 14 are miscellaneous. The tablets were translated by Dr.
Roger Tomlin
Roger Simon Ouin Tomlin (born 1943) is a British archaeologist specialising in the translation of Latin text and epigraphy. Tomlin is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford.
Early life
Tomlin first studied Honour Moderations (Mods) at Oxf ...
, an expert in
Roman cursive
Roman cursive (or Latin cursive) is a form of handwriting (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to some extent into the Middle Ages. It is customarily divided into old (or ancient) cursive and new cursive.
Old Roman cursive
Old Roman cursiv ...
, the writing style in which the tablets were written.
Tablets vary in content, including the oldest financial document from the city of London (dating to 8 January 57 AD),
about 3 to 4 years before it being destroyed by
Boudica
Boudica or Boudicca (, known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as ()), was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She ...
. It also documents how the Roman government responded with their military and how soon the city recovered thereafter. Legal documents including a judge calling a pretrial hearing, and educational material. One tablet shows the alphabet written out, indicating the presence of perhaps the first school in Britain. Additionally, among the tablets there are over 100 names of people of all different professions and social classes who lived in London at the time, such as slaves, merchants, soldiers, and politicians. One prominent figure that is named is
Julius Classicus
Julius Classicus was a Gaulish nobleman and military commander of the 1st century AD, belonging to the tribe of the Treviri. He served as a commander of the Roman auxiliaries. Along with Julius Tutor, another Treviran Roman auxiliary commander, and ...
, who was a commander in the Roman auxiliaries. One tablet contains the first mention of the name of the city of London, more than a half a century earlier than what was previously thought to be the first naming of London, in the
''Annals'' of
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
.
Another tablet said that Verulamium supplied London with provisions and not vice versa as had been thought originally. All of these legal documentation were in the wax tablets however the ink leaf tablets are believed to have contained more short lived correspondences (tablets 185 and 185).
Preservation
Although current technology and methods have allowed for recreation and translation of a number of the tablets, the vast majority of them remain as-of-yet unreadable. Thus, to keep these tablets in prime shape for future analysis, efforts are being made to keep these artefacts preserved. Preservation included a combination of immersion in
polyethylene glycol
Polyethylene glycol (PEG; ) is a polyether compound derived from petroleum with many applications, from industrial manufacturing to medicine. PEG is also known as polyethylene oxide (PEO) or polyoxyethylene (POE), depending on its molecular we ...
(PEG) and
freeze drying
Freeze drying, also known as lyophilization or cryodesiccation, is a low temperature dehydration process that involves freezing the product and lowering pressure, removing the ice by sublimation. This is in contrast to dehydration by most conve ...
.
Display
While some of the tablets are being preserved for future study, a number of them will be displayed in a museum exhibit entitled “
London Mithraeum
The London Mithraeum, also known as the Temple of Mithras, Walbrook, is a Roman Mithraeum that was discovered in Walbrook, a street in the City of London, during a building's construction in 1954. The entire site was relocated to permit continu ...
” located on the first two floors of the Bloomberg European Headquarters, which opened in November 2017.
See also
*
Vindolanda tablets
The Vindolanda tablets were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain (they have since been antedated by the Bloomberg tablets). They are a rich source of information about life on the northern fr ...
*
Wax tablet
A wax tablet is a tablet made of wood and covered with a layer of wax, often linked loosely to a cover tablet, as a "double-leaved" diptych. It was used as a reusable and portable writing surface in Antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. C ...
*
London Mithraeum
The London Mithraeum, also known as the Temple of Mithras, Walbrook, is a Roman Mithraeum that was discovered in Walbrook, a street in the City of London, during a building's construction in 1954. The entire site was relocated to permit continu ...
References
{{reflist, 30em
Archaeology of London
History of London
Latin inscriptions
Palaeography
Roman Britain