Return to the Wood in Roman Kent

Abstract

This short piece concerns a Roman writing tablet housed in the Museum of London. The tablet in question contains an incomplete record of a transaction between two Roman citizens containing the sale of a woodland in Roman Kent. Owing to the fragmentary nature of the text, the nature of the transaction and the context in which the tablet was produced cannot be determined with certainty. The aim of this piece is to set out current scholarly opinions on the possible nature of the transaction and the context in which it was produced and to venture a new interpretation of this document.