Roman Inked Reused Wooden Wax Tablet For a Contract Between Crescentius and Lanuarius Negotiated and Decided at the Goretiano Estate. Early 4th century A.D. Well preserved rectangular tablet with a recessed panel inscribed with eleven lines of Roman cursive script, no writing on the reverse, the last tablet of a legal probably regarding questions of land ownership between a Crescentius and a Lanuarius into which also local elders, seniores, were involved; the text consists of highly developed legal formula, e.g. testati sunt …, and ends with the note: Actum Goretiano, which may be understood as ‘negotiated and decided at the Goretiano estate’; the fundus Goretianos is also mentioned in various other know legal documents. Cf. Rothenhöfer, Peter Jürgen Blänsdorf, Sana mente sanaque memoria testamentum feci: Eine testamentarische Verfügung vom 12. April 340 n. Chr., Gephyra 13 (2016), pp.153-163; Rothenhöfer, Peter - Wang, Weixia, Flavius Aelius Victorinus praeses provinciae Numidiae, VDI 2025 (forthcoming); Wang, Wexia, Vibius Flavianus, First Governor of the provincia Valeria Byzacena, VDI 2025 (forthcoming); for examples of testamentary documents on wooden tablets that have survived, see FIRA III, p. 47; for Anthony Silvanus from 142 AD; also see BGU VII 1695 for Safinnius Herminus; for another from Transfynydd, North Wales, see Arch. Camb. 150, pp. 143-156; and see Bowman, A.K., Life and letters on the Roman frontier: Vindolanda and its people, London, 1994, for discussion of the uses of Roman writing tablets. Exhibited at the Harwich Museum, Harwich, Essex, UK, 21st January-10th March 2025; accompanied by a copy of a photograph of the artefacts on display. Rothenhoefer, P., Neue römische Rechtsdokumente aus dem Byzacena-Archiv / New Roman Legal Documents from the Byzacena Archive, (forthcoming). 27.4 grams, 14.4 cm (5 5/8 in.). [No Reserve] Acquired by Albert Sfez in the early 1950s. Formerly the property of Monsieur Alain Sfez, a Belgian collector; acquired by gift from his father Albert Sfez, in 1965. Acquired by a London dealer in 1973. From an important London collection since 1975; thence by descent.