Page 97 - Manual of Roman Everyday Writing Volume 2: Writing Equipment

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Archaeological evidence for separators is rare and it is assumed that
they were in most cases detachable and consequently lost but one
of the wax tablets excavated at the Bloomberg site in London has a
small rectangular separator in the centre which was fashioned from
the original surface and not separately (Tomlin 2016, 252–255).
Archaeological evidence for separators is known for both wax
tablets and ink tablets. Other examples for wax tablets were found
at Vindonissa (Switzerland), where the wooden separator measures
5.5 x 7 mm (Speidel 1996, 90–93 and 24); or in Herculaneum
(Italy), in this case a codex with eight pages (Marichal 1992b, 173
and fig. 2). An example for the use of separators with ink tablets
is a wooden book with three orations by Isocrates found in Kellis
(Dakhleh-Oasis, Egypt) and dating to the 4th century CE. In this
case, three separators made of leather were added after the tablets
were inscribed and distributed along the longer edges of each tablet
(Sharpe III 1992, e.g. fig. 14–21; Whitehorne 1996).

Fig. 70: Stylus tablet WT87 from the Bloomberg site, London
(UK), with a separator retained from the original surface,
65/70–90/95 CE. From Tomlin 2016, 255 fig. 135. © MOLA.

Separators were used to keep the pages of writing tablets from
damaging one another. These are small, roughly rectangular objects
that were presumably mostly made of wood or leather, possibly
also of bone (Božič and Feugère 2004, 24). They were added to the
tablets of codices to protect the inscribed surfaces by keeping them
apart. They were positioned in the centre of the tablet(s) or along Fig. 71: Label still in place on a 2nd-century papyrus,
the edge (Fünfschilling 2012, 167).
showing the title of Bacchylides’ Dithyramboi. P.Oxy. VIII
Such separators are depicted in frescos and mosaics (see e.g. Capasso 1091. © The British Library, Papyrus 2056, f.001v.
1992, fig. 3 and 4) and a 4th-century papyrus mentions tablets
with a ξύλον μικρόν (small piece of wood) for this purpose in a list
of objects the author of the letter asks his brother to purchase for
him in Alexandria (P.Fouad. 74, see Marichal 1992b, 173).