Are Roman seal-boxes evidence for literacy?

Abstract

Increasingly, individual classes of artefacts are being studied less in their own right and more to garner support for broader theories and arguments. Roman seal-boxes, for example, are now routinely used as proxy evidence for literacy because it is generally accepted that they were designed to protect wax seals attached to personal letters written on wooden stylus tablets. The most unequivocal expression of this position is found in the work of T. Derks and N. Roymans, who argue that the presence of seal-boxes, even in rural areas, is evidence for the penetration of Latin literacy.1 Their work has proved influential; it was used, for example, by R. Hingley to argue that The seal boxes on non-villa settlements may indicate that the population of the Lower Rhine were drawing upon aspects of Roman culture — Latin language and the technology of writing — through a creative engagement with the imperial system.2 Yet there had been very little prior research into seal-boxes themselves to support these ambitious theories (a point noted by Hingley himself3).