tablet-1

Down the backstreets of York is a street appropriately called Back Swinegate which, in the medieval period, was occupied by dwellings and small craft workshops.
In a patch of muddy wasteland a dark brown rectangular (30mm x 50mm) waterlogged object was spotted lying in what seemed to be a rubbish pit. It had fallen open to reveal writing!

Left: The excavation site
Below: the tablets as found

Closer examination showed it to be a rare and delicate object, a set of eight waxed writing tablets wrapped in a leather cover. Conservators were immediately called to site and took the tablets, in a block of soil, to the laboratory. This tiny object provided a tremendous conservation challenge.

Treatment and analysis

Bringing it alive

Find number 1989.28, 257. Dimensions: block of tablets & cover, height 50mm, width 30mm, thickness 15mm; each tablet 50 x 30 x 1.5mm.
Not yet fully published but see 'The Role of the Wax Tablet in Medieval Literacy: A reconsideration in light of a recent find from York' by Michelle P. Brown, Journal of the British Library Volume 20, No.1, 1994.