'First IOU' among Britain's oldest documents found buried beneath the City of London

Archaeologist Luisa Duarte with a Roman waxed writing tablet, dated AD 60/1-62, with what appears to show the last two lines of the alphabet
AFP/Getty
Mark Chandler2 June 2016

Britain’s oldest IOU has been found among a series of Roman wooden tablets buried deep beneath the City of London.

The waxed tablets, the country’s earliest known handwritten documents, were discovered under nearly 20ft of mud during excavations for finance company Bloomberg's new European headquarters near Mansion House.

Among 410 tablets uncovered, 87 have been deciphered, including one dated to 65-80AD which makes the earliest known reference to London.

They also include the earliest dated handwritten document in Britain, a financial record of money owed which bears the date January 8, 57AD.

The earliest intrinsically-dated document from Roman Britain, dated in the text to January 8, 57AD (AFP/Getty )
AFP/Getty

Sophie Jackson, archaeologist and director at independent charitable company Museum of London Archaeology, which led the dig, said they had high hopes for the excavation at the outset but the findings "far exceeded all expectations".

She said: "The tablets are hugely significant, they are the largest single assemblage of wax writing tablets found in Britain and what's particularly special about them is they are so early.

"It's the first generation of Londoners speaking to us.”

A tablet dated 80-90/5AD which reads "You will give (this) to Junius the cooper, opposite (the house of) Catullus"
AFP/Getty

The tablets, along with other organic materials such as wicker baskets and leather, were preserved by the lack of oxygen in the wet mud of the Walbrook, which dominated the area in Roman times but is now one of London's many lost rivers.

Experts said the tablets, many of which are broken fragments, ended up in layers of soil used as landfill to manage the Walbrook, along with coins, pottery and wood which can be used to date them, while some have the dates written on them.

One tablet is a contract from October 21, 62AD, to bring "twenty loads of provisions" from Verulamium - modern day St Albans, Hertfordshire - to London, a year after the revolt by Iceni queen Boudica.

Discovery: This tablet contains the earliest known written reference to London (AFP/Getty )
AFP/Getty

Roger Tomlin, an Oxford University classicist, said the writings included references to beer deliveries, evidence of an early beer baron whose empire stretched from London to Carlisle, legal rulings, references to the military presence in the city and someone practising handwriting.

There is also a begging letter asking "by bread and salt" for a return of a favour, in the form of the payment as soon as possible of 26 denarii, and a warning that "they are boasting through the whole market that you have lent them money"

Dr Tomlin said the documents showed the business activities of the "carpet-bagging community" of early London.

The discoveries were made beneath Bloomberg's new City of London building
Museum of London Archeology

He said: "It was the new wild west frontier of the Roman Empire, with people streaming in behind the Roman army and exploiting the new province.

"I am so lucky to be the first to read them again, after more than 19 centuries, and to imagine what these people were like, who founded the new city of London."

More than 700 artefacts from the excavation will go on display late next year in an exhibition space in the new Bloomberg building.

Additional reporting by the Press Association

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