inkwells

Above Writing equipment from a votive pit at a villa in Marktoberdorf, Bavaria. The cache includes an inkwell (back), a spatula (middle), and a small knife (front). The presence of this kit might suggest that writing played a role in the rites. ABOVE RIGHT A doctor’s grave from Vindonissa, Switzerland, where a cremation burial was accompanied with two scalpels (right), tweezers (centre), and an inkwell. Although in such cases the deceased are usually assumed to be men, detailed study of the skeletal material revealed the presence of a woman and child.

Age of ink: inkwells and writing in Roman Britain

The power of the Vindolanda and Bloomberg tablets to evoke our Roman past has made them justly famous, but just how widespread were writers in Roman Britain? Hella Eckardt reveals what inkwells can tell us about the arrival of literacy.