Bronze styli were first employed as writing tools by the Mesopotamians, who used them to incise surfaces with their cuneiform writing. This stylus would have been used for writing on wax tablets, tabulae ceratae, the most common writing medium in the Roman world. The tablets could be reused by warming and melting the wax and letting it set again. Their use persisted in Europe until the Late Middle Ages, when they started to be replaced by other writing tools.
Bronze Roman Stylus
£ 95.00
An ancient Roman bronze stylus, used in antiquity for writing on wax tablets. It features a long, thin shaft, which broadens into a small, flattened spoon-tip, used for erasing written words by smoothing the waxed surface. On the opposite end it narrows into a narrow point, which would have been used for incising text into the malleable wax.
Condition: Fine condition, green patination and earth encrustations on surface.
SOLD
| Weight | 13.1 g |
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| Dimensions | L 12.9 cm |
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