117 wooden writing tablets were discovered in the excavations of 1973 and 1974. They were photographed by Alison Rutherford and transcribed, translated and interpreted by Alan Bowman and David Thomas. They were published in 1983 as Tab. Vindol. I. In the next decade a further 455 tablets were discovered. That prompted a re-examination of the first 117. When Tab. Vindol. II was published in 1994, it included a re-publication of the first 117 tablets. To avoid confusion, the numbering of this volume began at 118. The first volume is, therefore, never cited.
By the time Tab. Vindol. III was published a decade later, including another 280 tablets, there had been a revolution in photography with the arrival of digital cameras. As a consequence, all the tablets in Tab. Vindol. II were photographed digitally for the first time. They were then re-examined and alterations made in an Appendix to Tab. Vindol. III. Those revised transcriptions and translations are not alternatives to the publications in Tab. VIndol. II. They are a definitive version of the tablets.
I have endeavoured to take into account the changes made in the Appendix to Tab. Vindol. III when citing tablets 118–572. Indeed, I have found it helpful not simply to use the numbers as in the online publication in Roman Inscriptions of Britain, but to identify each tablet by its volume number as well.
Many of the tablets were put online by the Oxford University Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents. That website has now been replaced by Roman Inscriptions of Britain.
The most recent discoveries from excavations in 2001-2003 and from 2017 have been published digitally as Tab. Vindol. IV. In 2019 the whole collection was put online. Not only are the tablets on Roman Inscriptions of Britain, but also the introductory matter to each volume.
Tab. Vindol. I–IV on Roman Inscriptions of Britain
In an exchange of emails, Roger Tomlin stressed to me that it is vital that the commentary and notes of each tablet are read alongside the transcript and the translation. They have, from the outset, been designed to relate to each other. I cannot stress enough that the comments in the book are my own interpretation of the work of Bowman and Thomas, and all others who have worked on the Vindolanda Tablets and I take full responsibility for any shortcomings there may be.
Most of the excavations which have resulted in the discovery of writing tablets have taken place to the south of the west wall of the later stone fort. In deep excavation pits, five periods of wooden fort were identified. Each period is associated with a particular location in the fort. I have identified the location of the finds in Table 6 and have included that information in my select catalogue of Vindolanda Tablets.
Alan Bowman published a selection of the tablets in 1994, with a revision in 2003. Not only did he introduce the tablets, but he also explored the lives represented in those writings.
Bowman, Alan K. Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier: Vindolanda and Its People. Revised, Expanded and Updated. London: British Museum, 2003.
As I was new to Latin Epigraphy, I made use of Alison Cooley’s Handbook of Latin Epigraphy. There is now an excellent introduction in the two-volume Manual of Roman Everyday Writing.
Cooley, Alison E. The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
The LatinNow website has many valuable resources, with open access publications. I made particular use of Alex Mullen’s Social Factors in the Latinization of the Roman West. Sadly, the other volume available here came out too late for me to use. It will be of particular interest to those interested in the local, Celtic languages, which can be glimpsed in tablets from Uley and Bath.
Imagining Luke-Acts in Roman Britain is entirely dependent on the painstaking work over many years of archaeologists, conservationists, photographers, curators, epigraphers and many more. The Vindolanda Tablets continue to be excavated by the Vindolanda Trust, led initially by Robin and Patricia Birley, subsequently by Anthony and Heide Birley, and currently by Andrew and Barbara Birley; they were photographed in infra-red originally by Alison Rutherford and since by many others. They have been transcribed, translated and interpreted by Alan Bowman and David Thomas with contributions by J. N. Adams (Tab. Vindol. II and III), John Pearce (Tab. Vindol. III), and Roger S. O. Tomlin (Tab. Vindol. IV). They are displayed imaginatively in Vindolanda and in the British Museum.