About wax tablets (Cera / Tabula cerata)

The cera (Latin for "tabula cerata" – wax tablet) was a small writing board made of hard material such as boxwood, beech wood or even bone. In the center of this board was a hollowed-out surface filled with a layer of dark wax.

On this wax layer, writing was done with a stylus – a pointed object made of metal, wood, or bone (Greek: stŷlos, Latin: stilus). With this tool, one would scratch symbols into the wax. If necessary, these symbols could easily be erased or smoothed over, making the tablet reusable. These wax tablets were used for daily notes, reminders of tasks, debts, obligations, and as drafts of texts that were later transferred to papyrus or parchment.

Sealed wax tablets also served official purposes, such as drafting wills, conveying secret orders, statements, receipts, and even reports. The oldest known archaeological example of a wax tablet dates back to the 7th century BC, found in Etruria (Italy). In Europe, the use of wax tablets remained common until the mid-19th century.

The ancient Greeks called a wax-covered writing board a "delta" (Greek: δέλτος), presumably due to the triangular or trapezoidal shapes in early antiquity. The edges of these tablets were typically pierced to be fastened together with cords, leather straps, or rings. Two connected tablets were called a diptych, three a triptych, and four or more a polyptych.

The Greek historian Herodotus refers to a diptych in his account of the cunning ruse of the Spartan king Demaratus (Book VII, 239). Demaratus wanted to secretly convey the war plans of the Persian king Xerxes to his fellow citizens. He scraped the wax off a diptych, wrote a message directly on the wooden surface, and then covered it again with a layer of wax. Thus, the tablet aroused no suspicion: a blank wax tablet was, after all, a normal tool for a literate person.

In affluent Roman households, archives with wax tablets were stored in a special room, the tablinum (derived from tabula = tablet). The Roman encyclopedist Pliny the Elder described such archives in his Naturalis Historia (Book XXXV, chapter 7). However, he used the term codex for books on parchment, a form that would later become the standard for the book as we know it today.

Prominent Romans often used luxurious writing tablets, made of ivory and sometimes adorned with gold and detailed reliefs on the outside. It was customary for Roman consuls to give expensive writing tablets as New Year's gifts to friends and associates on January 1st. Businessmen and politicians first drafted versions of documents or letters on them, which were then dictated to professional scribes (librarii). According to Cicero, Julius Caesar had no fewer than seven scribes with him (see Pro Sulla, 14).

Important finds of Roman writing tablets were made during excavations on July 3–5, 1875, in the house of the banker Lucius Caecilius Iucundus in Pompeii. Similar finds were later also made in Herculaneum. Above the portico of Iucundus' house, a chest was found containing 127 diptychs and triptychs. Despite damage from volcanic ash and partial charring, a significant portion of them could be deciphered.

Most documents on these tablets date from 53–62 AD, with some older examples from 15 and 27 AD. The Pompeian triptychs consisted of tablets with a wax layer on which writing was usually done on the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th pages. The main text was on pages 2 and 3. The tablets were then folded so that these pages were invisible. On page 4, a cord was passed through a special groove and sealed with the seals of witnesses. These witnesses signed next to their seal, written in ink on the wood. Most documents concerned receipts and payment confirmations.

The expression "tabula rasa" comes from the Roman use of the writing tablet. It literally means "scraped tablet" and is figuratively used for a new beginning or a blank mind. The term refers to erasing the wax layer with the back of the stylus, allowing the tablet to be written on again.

In Roman education, writing tablets were indispensable: every child had one in their school bag. And fortunately – mistakes could be easily corrected!

Writing tablets played an essential role in the creation of ancient literature. The first ideas and drafts of literary works were jotted down on them. Only after careful revision was the final text transferred to papyrus or parchment. If the reworking was not thorough, errors could creep into the final version. This is evident from the many inaccuracies in the works of Pliny the Elder, such as his Naturalis Historia.