Ancient Roman 'Pen' Was a Joke Souvenir

This ancient Roman stylus may have been the equivalent of today's joke souvenir.

(Image credit: MOLA)

The tradition of buying cheap, joke souvenirs for your loved ones while traveling dates back at least two millennia.

During an archaeological excavation at a Roman-era site in London, researchers found around 200 iron styluses used for writing on wax-filled wooden tablets. One of those styluses, which just debuted in its first public exhibition, holds a message written in tiny lettering along its sides. The inscription's sentiment, according to the researchers who translated it, is essentially, "I went to Rome and all I got you was this pen."

The researchers said the "the City" in the inscription likely refers to Rome. The stylus, which dates to around the year 70, was discovered during construction for Bloomberg's European headquarters in London. The headquarters was built over the former course of a now-lost tributary of the River Thames, called the River Walbrook. At the site, archaeologists have found the remains of part of Londinium, the Roman settlement that was established near the edge of the empire around the year 43. [10 Epic Battles That Changed History]

In addition to writing implements, archaeologists working on the London excavation found more than 400 fragments of personal letters, loan notes, contracts, receipts and other texts scrawled on wax tablets. These fragile documents rarely survive in the archaeological record, but the waterlogged site helped preserve the wax surfaces and their inscriptions. While many tablets had been reused, financial and legal documents make up a higher proportion of the texts that have survived, probably because people would have been more likely to save these documents, a book about the finds said.

The texts discovered at the Bloomberg site include one document dated January 8 of 57, in which one man acknowledges that he owes another man 105 denarii for merchandise that was sold and delivered. This may be both Britain's earliest piece of handwriting and London's earliest financial document. Another text, created sometime between 65 and 80, contains the earliest known reference by name to London in a tablet.

Megan has been writing for Live Science and Space.com since 2012. Her interests range from archaeology to space exploration, and she has a bachelor's degree in English and art history from New York University. Megan spent two years as a reporter on the national desk at NewsCore. She has watched dinosaur auctions, witnessed rocket launches, licked ancient pottery sherds in Cyprus and flown in zero gravity. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.