tabulae

Tabulae is the Latin plural form of tabula, meaning a board, plank, or tablet. In ancient and late antique contexts, tabulae referred to writing surfaces, portable records, or displayed tables of data. The term appears in Latin texts to describe notes, lists, contracts, and other documents kept on a tablet.

The most common kind were tabulae ceratae, wax-coated wooden tablets. A typical tabula consisted of two thin boards bound by a hinge, with a wax surface that could be incised with a stylus. The wax could be softened or reapplied to erase or modify entries, making tabulae reusable for teaching, correspondence, or accounting. Students learned to write on tabulae ceratae in many Roman schools.

In archaeology and epigraphy, tabulae are encountered as inscriptions or records on wooden, wax, or metal tablets. They include civic records, legal contracts, inventories, and correspondence. Some tabulae survive only as textual references in literary sources, while others are recovered as physical artifacts or drawings.

In language and scholarship, tabulae appears in phrases such as tabulae rasae (blank tablets) and is often cited in discussions of ancient writing technology, literacy, and administration. In modern usage, tabulae remains a scholarly term mainly within Latin, epigraphic, and classical studies contexts.