Digitising a Roman Tabula Cerata from Alburnus Maior (Roşia Montană, Jud. Alba / RO)

Abstract

Digitising a Roman Tabula Cerata from Alburnus Maior (Roşia Montană, Jud. Alba / RO)

The study focuses on one of the wax tablets from the Roman mines of Alburnus Maior (TC XV = TabCerD XVI) recently rediscovered in the collection of the Museum of Aiud (Romania) and digitised by the authors. The article presents the context of the discovery and its complex history from 1855 until the rediscovery of the object in 2018, a detailed analysis of the physical features and the current state of the wax tablet, as well as a complete reinterpretation and digital reconstruction of the epigraphic field, the first since the reading of Theodor Mommsen. We question the old interpretation of the fragmentarily preserved text of the wax tablet, suggesting that it needs to be contextualised as a type of adversaria. The authors also present the importance of the H-RTI technique in the digitisation of fragile, rarely accessible archaeological heritage, especially in the case of Alburnus Maior, which was inscribed in 2021 as a UNESCO World Heritage site.