Chapter 1: Antiquity
Last updated
Last updated
The idea of writing on a portable flat surface goes back a very long time - thousands of years.
We know from archaeological records and from the writings of ancient authors such as Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC) Romans wrote on a wax tablet, called a tabula, with a stylus.
Here's an image from Wikipedia showing what some of these tablets look like. Basically, it consisted of a wooden frame with some wax on the surface. Note that there are two tablets joined together to form a unit.
The Romans did not have modern paper, but instead used papyrus which is similar. It's unclear how expensive papyrus was () but in any case its easy to see why a wax tablet might be useful because it relied on everyday materials and could be erased and reused.
Even earlier in this image from Wikipedia, a painter of vases named Douris around 500BC produced of an image of man using a wax tablet, stylus in hand. Although, humorously and anachronistically this does look like someone using a laptop :-)
Here, from , you can see the a schoolmaster depicted with a stylus and tax tablets.