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Details
LOT 0110
Roman Inked Reused Wooden Wax Tablet For a Contract Between Crescentius and Lanuarius Negotiated and Decided at the Goretiano Estate
EARLY 4TH CENTURY A.D.
5 5/8 in. (27.4 grams, 14.4 cm).
Well preserved rectangular tablet with a recessed panel inscribed with eleven lines of Roman cursive script, no writing on the reverse, the last tablet of a legal contract probably regarding questions of land ownership between a Crescentius and a Lanuarius into which also local elders, seniores, were involved; the text consists of highly developed legal formula, e.g. testati sunt …, and ends with the note: Actum Goretiano, which may be understood as ‘negotiated and decided at the Goretiano estate’; the fundus Goretianos is also mentioned in various other know legal documents. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired by Albert Sfez in the early 1950s.
Formerly the property of Monsieur Alain Sfez, a Belgian collector; acquired by gift from his father Albert Sfez, in 1965.
Acquired by a London dealer in 1973.
From an important London collection since 1975; thence by descent.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
Published
Rothenhoefer, P., Neue römische Rechtsdokumente aus dem Byzacena-Archiv / New Roman Legal Documents from the Byzacena Archive, (forthcoming).
Exhibited at the Harwich Museum, Harwich, Essex, UK, 21st January-10th March 2025; accompanied by a copy of a photograph of the artefacts on display.
Literature
Cf. Rothenhöfer, Peter Jürgen Blänsdorf, Sana mente sanaque memoria testamentum feci: Eine testamentarische Verfügung vom 12. April 340 n. Chr., Gephyra 13 (2016), pp.153-163; Rothenhöfer, Peter - Wang, Weixia, Flavius Aelius Victorinus praeses provinciae Numidiae, VDI 2025 (forthcoming); Wang, Wexia, Vibius Flavianus, First Governor of the provincia Valeria Byzacena, VDI 2025 (forthcoming); for examples of testamentary documents on wooden tablets that have survived, see FIRA III, p. 47; for Anthony Silvanus from 142 AD; also see BGU VII 1695 for Safinnius Herminus; for another from Transfynydd, North Wales, see Arch. Camb. 150, pp. 143-156; and see Bowman, A.K., Life and letters on the Roman frontier: Vindolanda and its people, London, 1994, for discussion of the uses of Roman writing tablets.
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LOT 0110
Roman Inked Reused Wooden Wax Tablet For a Contract Between Crescentius and Lanuarius Negotiated and Decided at the Goretiano Estate
Sold for (Inc. bp): £11,050
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