This unassuming piece of wood is actually part of a Roman writing tablet which was found at the bathhouse in Ribchester which was built around AD100. There was no written word in Britain before the arrival of the Romans in AD43 and this tablet represents one of the earliest examples of writing found in Lancashire.

This type of stylus writing tablet had a depression on one side filled with wax where messages were inscribed using a stylus pen. The wax could then be smoothed over, erasing the message and allowing for re-use.

If you look closely very faint traces of writing can be seen scratched into the surface of the wood by over-enthusiastic writers. As messages were laid over each other it is extremely difficult to decipher the text.

This type of tablet was used across the Roman Empire for administrative tasks and this might be the case for the Ribchester bathhouse tablet too. Maybe it was used to record the number of bathers that day or the food and supplies that were needed – we may never know!