4th-6th century AD. A pair of wooden scribe's tools comprising: a rectangular scribal palette with five ink holes and two rectangular pen slots, three pairs of piercings to the long edge with transverse cuts, a set of cuts to the edge on the opposite side; a rectangular writing tablet with recess to both sides for containing the wax, three pairs of piercings to the long edge with matching transverse cuts. See Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 14.2.4a–d, for a similar wax tablet; see also William Smith, D.C.L., A dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London, 1875; Rutschowscaya, M.H., Benazeth, D., L’Art Copte en Egypte, 2000 ans de christianisme, Paris, 2000.155 grams total, 19-19.4cm (7 1/2"). Property of a London gentleman; acquired on the UK art market; accompanied by an archaeological report by military specialist Dr. Raffaele D’Amato; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no. 10548-170357. The recessed areas of the tablet would have been filled with wax and employed for writing with a stylus or a wooden pen, this wax could be re-used multiple times. The word tabula means planks or boards, whence it could be applied to several objects, but more especially to tablets used for writing. In general the word tabula was applied to any flat substance used for writing upon, whether stone or metal or wood covered with wax. [2]