Vindolanda Tablets Letters Home from Hadrians Wall

The Vindolanda tablets (also known as Vindolanda Letters) are thin pieces of wood about the size of a modern postcard, which were used as writing paper for the Roman soldiers garrisoned at the fort of Vindolanda between AD 85 and 130. Such tablets have been found at other Roman sites, including nearby Carlisle, but not in as much abundance. In Latin texts, such as those of Pliny the Elder, these kinds of tablets are referred to as leaf tablets or sectiles or laminae — Pliny used them to keep notes for his Natural History, written in the first century AD. The tablets are thin slivers (.5 centimeters to 3 millimeters thick) of imported spruce or larch, which for the most part measure about 10 by 15 centimers (around 4 by 6 inches). The surface of the wood was smoothed and treated so it could be used for writing. Often the tablets were scored in the center so that they could be folded and tied together for security purposes — to keep couriers from reading the contents. Longer documents were created by tying several leaves together. Writing the Vindolanda Letters The writers of the Vindolanda documents include soldiers, officers and their wives and families who were garrisoned at Vindolanda, as well as merchants and slaves and correspondents at many different cities and forts throughout the vast Roman empire, including Rome, Antioch, Athens, Carlisle, and London. The writers wrote exclusively in Latin on the tablets, although the texts mostly lack punctuation or proper spelling; there is even some Latin shorthand which has yet to be deciphered. Some of the texts are rough drafts of letters that were later sent; others are mail received by the soldiers from their families and friends elsewhere. Some of the tablets have doodles and drawings on them. The tablets were written on with pen and ink — over 200 pens have been recovered at Vindolanda. The most common pen nib was made of a good quality iron by a blacksmith, who sometimes embellished them with chevrons or bronze leaf or inlay, depending on the customer. The nib was typically attached to a wood holder that held a well of ink made of a mixture of carbon and gum arabic. What Did the Romans Write? Topics covered on the tablets include letters to friends and families (a friend sent me 50 oysters from Cordonovi, Im sending you half and So that you may know that I am in good health... you most irreligious fellow who hasnt even sent me a single letter); applications for leave (I ask you, Lord Cerialis, that you hold me worthy for you to grant me leave); official correspondence; strength reports listing the number of men present, absent or ill; inventories; supply orders; travel expense account details (2 wagon axles, 3.5 denarii; wine-lees, 0.25 denarii); and recipes. One plaintive plea to the Roman emperor Hadrian himself reads: As befits an honest man I implore Your Majesty not to allow me, an innocent man, to have been beaten with rods... Chances are this was never sent. Added to this are quotations from famous pieces: a quote from Virgils Aeneid is written in what some, but not all scholars interpret as a childs hand. Finding the Tablets The recovery of over 1300 tablets at Vindolanda (to date; tablets are still being found in the ongoing excavations run by the Vindolanda Trust) is the result of serendipity: a combination of the way the fort was constructed and the geographic location of the fort. Vindolanda was built at the place where two streams conjoin to create the Chinley Burn, which ends up in the South Tyne river. As such, the forts occupants struggled with wet conditions for most of the four centuries or so that the Romans lived here. Because of that, the floors of the fort were carpeted with a thickish (5-30 cm) combination of mosses, bracken, and straw. Into this thick, smelly carpet were lost a number of items, including discarded shoes, textile fragments, animal bone, metal fragments and pieces of leather: and a large number of Vindolanda tablets. In addition, many tablets were discovered in filled-in ditches  and preserved by the wet, mucky, anaerobic conditions of the environment. Reading the Tablets The ink on many of the tablets is not visible, or not readily visible with the naked eye. Infrared photography has been used successfully to capture images of the written word. More interestingly, the fragments of information from the tablets have been combined with other data known about Roman garrisons. For example, Tablet 183 lists an order for iron ore and objects including their prices, which Bray (2010) has used to learn about what the cost of iron was relative to other commodities, and from that identify the difficulty and utility of iron out on the edges of the far-flung Roman empire. Resources and Further Reading Images,  texts,  and translations of some of the Vindolanda Tablets can be found at the  Vindolanda Tablets Online. Many of the tablets themselves are at stored at the  British  Museum and  visiting the  Vindolanda Trust  website is well worth it as well. Birley A. 2002.  Garrison Life at Vindolanda: A Band of Brothers.  Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Tempus Publishing. 192 p.Birley AR. 2010.  The nature and significance of extramural settlement at Vindolanda and other selected sites on the Northern Frontier of Roman Britain.  Unpublished  PhD  Thesis, School of archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester. 412 p.Birley R. 1977.  Vindolanda: A Roman frontier post on Hadrians Wall. London: Thames and Hudson, Ltd. 184 p.Bowman AK. 2003 (1994).  Life and Letters on the Roman  Fronteir: Vindolanda and its People.  London: British Museum Press. 179 p.Bowman AK, Thomas JD, and Tomlin RSO. 2010. The Vindolanda Writing-Tablets (Tabulae Vindolandenses IV, Part 1).  Britannia  41:187-224. doi: 10.1017/S0068113X10000176Bray L. 2010. Horrible, Speculative, Nasty, Dangerous: Assessing the Value of Roman Iron.  Britannia  41:175-185. doi:10.1017/S0068113X10000061Carillo E, Rodriguez-Echavarria K, and Arnold D. 2007. Displaying Intangible Heritage Using ICT. Roman Everyday Life on the Frontier: Vindolanda. In: Arnold D, Niccolucci F, and Chalmers A, editors.  8th International Symposium on Virtual Reality,  Archaeology  and Cultural Heritage  VAST

Working from Home †It’s in the Details (an Article Review)

Case Study #2 WORKING FROM HOME – IT’S IN THE DETAILS (An article review) 1. Identify and discuss the main problems or concerns mentioned in this case study regarding telecommuting. In your opinion, do most of these problems originate with the company or the employee? †¢ I noticed lots of problems in this article regarding telecommuting. One of these problems is Communication breakdown. Employees under this kind of job begin to feel isolated although it is part of the job, because they are lack of interaction between their managers and colleagues. Even if there were many ways to communicate with them like internet, phones, instant messaging or social medias still much better to communicate with physical appearance. It has a†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Since the employees know the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting job during the pre-employment period. I think these problems originate most from the employees. Because since they know the possible things might happened in the future, they must prepared and and be more conscious towards their job. They must consider the fact that they were properly compensated so, they must do their job in accordance with the duties and responsibilities that the company assigned to them. And have faith and trust to the company that they are always part of the possible success of the company. 2. Describe the characteristic of people who adjust more easily to telecommuting. How can companies identify these employees or develop others to be better prepared for telecommuting? †¢ The article doesn’t discuss much about the characteristics of people. However, it explains that telecommuting is not appropriate for new hire employees, beacause as stated it requires face to face mentoring and working in the office for a period of time before going virtual. †¢ The company may develop a better telecommuters by providing them the total Company allignment which coherent and clearly stated, with strategies, policies processes and reward systems all aligned toward achieving common goals — goals that will benefit the copmany and the people. Company should also ensure that effective telecommuters should not rely dependently with their co-telecommuters especially toShow MoreRelatedThe Equality Between Women And Men1732 Words   |  7 Pagesmuch attention of the equality between women and men. It’s still a very hot topic around us in our today’s society. However, when we talk about it right now, we more care about if women and men have the same equal right. 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Post Facto Research Free Essays

1. What is the meaning of research? There are various definitions of research. According to John . We will write a custom essay sample on Post Facto Research or any similar topic only for you Order Now W. Best, research is a systematic and objective analysis and recording of controlled observations that may lead to the development of generalizations, principles, theories and concepts, resulting in prediction for seeing and possibly ultimate control of events. On the other hand, Clifford Woody defined research as a careful enquiry or examination in seeking facts or principles, a diligent investigation to ascertain something. Furthermore, Mouley defined research as a process of arriving at dependable solution to the problems through the planned and systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data. According to Martyn Shuttleworth (Oct 3, 2008), in the broadest sense of the word, the definition of research includes any gathering of data, information and facts for the advancement of knowledge. Kothari (2002) described research as a systematic investigation to find solution to a problem. 2. What is the importance of research? Research is very much beneficial to everyone in the society. According to Ayesha Afsar, research is important because it gives direction to deal with a specific problem. Whether the problem is thoroughly solved or not is not the forte of the research work. Accumulating amicable and all the possible solutions hypothetically are in itself considered a commendable achievement. Moreover, as stated by Michelle Lowe, research can help us to explore education and the education process. It can help us to answer questions about learning and teaching. Prince Samuels also added that research is very vital to our everyday decision making. It arms us from wrong information and save time and money. It is important to our success as we take on life’s challenges and career decisions making. Furthermore, Joe Gilbert stated that research is important when conducted correctly because it helps us to understand and possibly even solve existing or possible problems in the world. This could be anything from social issues to medical breakthroughs. Governments carry out research all of the time in order to come to conclusions about policies and strategies. They will often choose experts in the particular field to go out and carry out in-depth research to help them out. Without this research and knowledge, it would be difficult to make a change in the world. It would also mean that changes wouldn’t be fully considered which could result in bigger problems in the long run. 3. What are the kinds of research? As emphasized by C. R. Kothari, the following are the different kinds of research: Basic Research deals with the formulation of theory; gathering knowledge for knowledge’s sake is ‘pure’ or ‘basic’ research; pure research is â€Å"research made without any idea of application to industrial matters but solely with the view of extending our knowledge of the Laws of Nature. † * Applied {action} Research focuses at finding a solution for immediate problem; helps in discovering a solution for some pressing practical problem; is the application of knowledge from one or more natural scientific fields [pure research] to solving practical problems Descriptive/ex post facto research includes survey facts finding inquires it focuses on two aspects: {a}What has happened? {b}What is happening? * Correlational research attempts to discover or establish the existence of a relationship/ interdependence between two or more aspects of a situation. * Explanatory research attempts to clarify why and how there is a relationship between two or more aspects or a phenomenon. Exploratory research is undertaken to explore an area where a little is known or to investigate the possibilities of undertaking a particular research study {feasibility/ pilot study}. It is the development of hypothesis rather than their testing. Exploratory research often relies on secondary research such as reviewing available literature and/or data, or qualitative approaches such as informal discussions with consumers, employees, management or competitors, and more formal approaches through in-depth interviews, focus groups, projective methods, case studies or pilot studies Historical research is the type of research that examines past events or combinations of events to arrive at an account of what has happened in the past. * Experimental research is defined essentially as research in which the causal (independent) variable(s) can be manipulated in order to change an effect Because of this element of manipulation, researchers in using experimental methods are expected to maintain a good degree of control throughout the period of the study to establish with confidence that cause and effect occurred. (Dr. Anthony G. Picciano) * Constructive research is mainly done by many technological corporates in order to find new/alternative solutions to any particular crisis or problems. For example-renewable energy research or development of the capacity of optical fiber may fall into this category of research. * Empirical research is very impressive observational type of research, where one observes or test on real-life data or analysis the pattern of some specific events in order to identify the nature or the class of trend that specific phenomenon maintains. Based on the test result, researchers try to draw lines in order to predict the result of that type of incidents with certain level of confidence. 4. What are the characteristics of research? According to Ranjit Kumar, the following are the characteristics of research: * Empirical. Research is based on direct experience or observation by the researcher. * Logical. Research is based on valid procedures and principles. * Cyclical. Research is a cyclical process because it starts with a problem and ends with a problem. Analytical. Research utilizes proven analytical procedures in gathering the data, whether historical, descriptive, experimental and case study. * Critical. Research exhibits careful and precise judgment. * Methodical. Research is conducted in a methodical manner without bias using systematic method and procedures. * Replicability. The research design and procedures are replicated or repeated to enable the researcher to arrive at valid and conclusive results. How to cite Post Facto Research, Essays