Reading Roman shopping lists and letters: everyday needs at Vindolanda worksheet
Compare two surviving documents from Vindolanda. Identify everyday needs, distinguish requests from completed transactions, and explain what damaged evidence cannot tell us.
Using this worksheet
Suggested use: a 30–40 minute source-reading activity, independently or in pairs. No Latin knowledge is required. Read the two modern summaries, then complete the printable sheet. These summaries are selective paraphrases, not quotations or complete translations. Tablet numbers identify the original documents; the linked editions provide translations and scholarly commentary.
Learning aims: identify explicit evidence, make cautious inferences, and recognise limits caused by damage and an uncertain context. For wider context, see daily life at Vindolanda.
Everyday needs at Vindolanda: reading evidence
Evidence means information supplied by a source. An inference is an interpretation based on that information. A request does not prove that goods were bought, delivered or used.
Source A: food requests, Tab.Vindol. 302
This wooden ink tablet from Vindolanda is dated approximately AD 85–92 by its archaeological context. It preserves part of a letter containing a list of food requests. Selected details, paraphrased: twenty chickens; one hundred apples, provided suitable ones can be found; and one hundred or two hundred eggs, depending on whether the local price is reasonable. The surviving address may identify the recipient as an enslaved person belonging to Verecundus. The editors suggest a connection with the commander's household, but this is an interpretation. The document is incomplete.
Source B: clothing and greetings, Tab.Vindol. 346
This fragmentary wooden ink tablet from Vindolanda is tentatively dated AD 104–120. Selected details, paraphrased: the writer apparently reports sending clothing, including socks, sandals and underpants. The translation marks the sending phrase as uncertain. A later passage passes on greetings and good wishes to the recipient's messmates. The surviving text does not securely identify the sender or recipient. It does not establish that a parent sent clothing to a child.
1. Read closely
From Source A, record two requested foods and their quantities. For each, note any condition attached to the request. Write 'none stated in this summary' where appropriate.
Food and quantity: ____________________ Condition: ____________________
Food and quantity: ____________________ Condition: ____________________
From Source B, identify two clothing items and one detail about relationships between people.
Clothing: ____________________ Relationship detail: ____________________
2. Test a claim
For each claim, choose: directly supported; possible inference; or not established. Explain your choice using A or B. More than one interpretation may be defensible if you explain the evidence and its limits.
a. The food request takes price into account.
Judgement and evidence: __________________________________________________
b. Exactly two hundred eggs were delivered.
Judgement and evidence: __________________________________________________
c. Sending useful goods could help maintain personal relationships.
Judgement and evidence: __________________________________________________
d. The clothing letter was written by the recipient's mother.
Judgement and evidence: __________________________________________________
3. Compare and qualify
Explain one similarity and one difference between the everyday needs represented in A and B. Use a specific detail from each.
Similarity: ______________________________________________________________
Difference: ______________________________________________________________
Why would these documents be insufficient evidence for a claim about what every person in Roman Britain ate or wore? Consider their dates, possible household context and missing information.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
4. Write a cautious conclusion
Write three sentences: one claim about everyday needs supported by a source; one possible inference; and one question the surviving evidence cannot answer. Identify your source and use wording such as 'suggests', 'possibly' or 'does not establish' where needed.
Supported claim: _________________________________________________________
Possible inference: _______________________________________________________
Unanswered question: _____________________________________________________
Discussion and assessment guidance
Assess whether learners identify the source, distinguish its surviving content from interpretation, and explain uncertainty. Accept alternative inferences when they are supported and qualified. Invite learners to explain what additional evidence would test their conclusions.
For support, read the summaries aloud and ask learners to underline uncertainty words. For extension, compare a summary with its linked scholarly translation and explain what the summary omits. Keep imagined reconstructions clearly separate from historical evidence.