ARCHAEOLOGISTS have gained a rare glimpse into life on the British frontier
of the Roman Empire by deciphering a 1900-year-old text that was unreadable to
the naked eye.
One section appears to document a transaction involving a slave who was sent
on a mission or possibly sold, says Alan Bowman of Oxford University. “It’s
interesting that they were documenting transactions so early,” he says. It
suggests life on the frontier might have been surprisingly civilised.
The text appears on a wooden tablet, one of 150 found at the settlement
Vindolanda, near where Hadrian’s Wall was later built. The Romans coated…
