Herculaneum Wax Tablet Craft Set
Build, Fill and Write as in Rome
The Herculaneum Wax Tablet Craft Set contains everything You need to build and write on a Roman single tablet in the format 19 × 11 cm: pre-cut wooden board and strips, a matching wax plate, a beechwood stylus with erasing end, and writing and craft instructions with a Roman ABC. In addition, You only need wood glue and 120-grit sandpaper, which are available in most craft rooms and households. The set is available in four wax colours, from pure beeswax to black.
From Wooden Board to Writing Tablet: One Set, One Project Day, One Piece of Rome of Your Own
The Chest from the Casa del Bicentenario
When Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, it struck Herculaneum differently from Pompeii. Glowing avalanches of gas and ash buried the city and charred wood instead of decomposing it. This preserved what would long since have rotted elsewhere: furniture, doors, roof beams and wax tablets.
In a house on the main street, today called the Casa del Bicentenario, archaeologists came across a wooden chest full of writing tablets, joined together as double and triple tablets. Its contents are a court file. A young woman named Petronia Iusta fought for her status in the years 75 and 76 AD. Her mother had been enslaved in the household of Petronius Stephanus and was later freed. The crucial question was: Was Iusta born before or after her mother’s manumission? On that depended whether she was considered freeborn or a freedwoman, with obligations towards the widow Calatoria Themis.
Witnesses appeared and gave testimony about what they had heard in the house. Their statements were recorded on wax, tablet by tablet, with date and names. We do not know how the trial ended. The tablets end before the verdict is given.
What remains is a rare glimpse into Roman everyday life: a wax tablet was not a toy and not a notepad for trivial matters. It carried contracts, receipts, witness statements, sometimes the fate of a person. The Herculaneum Craft Set bears the name of this city, and the tablet created from it follows the same principle: wooden frame, recessed surface, a thin layer of wax.
What Is in the Set and How It Becomes a Tablet
The set includes a wooden board in the format 19 × 11 cm and four pre-cut strips, two long and two short. Glued onto the board, the strips form the frame, and in the middle the recessed writing surface of 16 × 8.5 cm is created. The supplied wax plate fits exactly inside; one layer is enough.
The build happens in three stages. First, edges and surfaces are smoothed with 120-grit sandpaper. Then the strips are glued onto the board with wood glue and pressed down firmly. Now the glue needs time: only when it has fully set does the wax come next. If You press in the plate too early, You shift the freshly glued strips. Finally, the wax plate is cut to the inner dimensions, warmed briefly between the palms of the hands and pressed evenly into the recess with the fingers.
A finished beechwood stylus is included for writing, 12 cm long, with a point for incising and a flattened end for smoothing. The writing and craft instructions guide You through the build and show the Roman ABC, so the first letters can be written straight away in Capitalis.
Wood glue and sandpaper are deliberately not included. Both are found in almost every craft room and many households. Instead of sending tiny quantities in additional packaging, You work with what is already there: less waste, a lower price per set.
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Contents: wooden board 19 × 11 cm, 4 pre-cut strips, 1 wax plate 20 × 10 cm, 1 beechwood stylus, writing and craft instructions with Roman ABC
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Finished tablet: single tablet 19 × 11 cm, inner writing surface 16 × 8.5 cm
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Stylus: beechwood, stylus fagus, 12 cm, flattened erasing end
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Wax colours: Natural (pure beeswax), Old Red, Golden Yellow, Black (wax mixture)
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Additionally required: wood glue, 120-grit sandpaper
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Important: allow the glue to dry completely before inserting the wax plate
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Age recommendation: from 6 years, use under adult supervision
Two Stages, One Result
The Set in Class and at Home
Because the glue needs time to dry, working with the set naturally divides into two stages. That is not a disadvantage, but a didactic rhythm. In the first unit, the children sand and glue their tablets while the teacher tells the story of the find in the Casa del Bicentenario. The blanks then rest until the next lesson or until the afternoon on the project day. In the second unit, the wax is inserted and the writing begins.
For the writing phase, Herculaneum itself provides the occasion. The children take on the role of witnesses in the trial of Petronia Iusta and record on their tablet what they have seen or heard: a name, a date, a short sentence in Capitalis. A craft lesson thus becomes a piece of lived legal history, and the question of why freedom had to be proven in court opens up, almost naturally, a conversation about justice then and now.
For teachers, the set is easy to plan. Each child receives their own set with all parts; only glue and sandpaper from the craft room are shared. At the end, each child takes their finished tablet home.
At home, at a children’s birthday party or in a holiday programme, the set works the same way: build in the morning, write in the afternoon. Anyone working with children aged six and over supervises the sanding and gluing; most children can then insert the wax by themselves.
The finished tablet remains in long-term use. You write with the stylus point, erase with the flat end, and the surface is ready for the next text.
Four Colours, One Tablet: Which Wax Fits Your Project?
Pure beeswax is found in the Natural variant. It has a light honey scent, glides smoothly under the stylus and can be smoothed particularly easily with the flat end. For tablets that will remain in use for a long time and be written on and erased daily, this is the right choice.
Black provides the classic look. Black-coloured wax is the most frequently attested variant of Roman writing tablets, and the writing stands out on it with strong contrast. Well suited for demonstrations, exhibitions and anyone who wants their tablet to be as close as possible to the archaeological model.
Golden Yellow offers a warm natural tone at a lower price. The colour comes close to beeswax, while the flexible wax mixture makes the set more affordable. A good choice for class sets and project days where the natural look matters and the budget matters too.
Old Red, the colour tone of Pompeian wall painting, creates a coloured accent. In a class with mixed colours, the red tablet quickly becomes the group colour or the tablet for special tasks.
Old Red, Golden Yellow and Black consist of a flexible paraffin-based wax mixture. They cut well and do not break; smoothing requires a few more strokes than with pure beeswax. For mixed class sets, all four variants can be freely combined.
| Variant |
Material |
Smoothing |
Especially suitable for |
| Natural |
pure beeswax |
easy |
long-term use, frequent erasing |
| Black |
wax mixture |
a little more patience |
strong contrast, archaeological model |
| Golden Yellow |
wax mixture |
a little more patience |
natural tone at a lower price, class sets |
| Old Red |
wax mixture |
a little more patience |
colour accent, group work |
A Sentence That Went to Court on Wax
In the trial concerning Petronia Iusta, witnesses testified about what they had heard in the house of Petronius Stephanus. Iusta’s mother had asked the couple to give her daughter back to her. Stephanus is said to have replied:
„Qui invides filiae, cum eam nos filiae loco faciamus?“
“Why do You begrudge Your daughter something, when we treat her as a daughter?”
Tabulae Herculanenses 19 and 20, Herculaneum, 75/76 AD
A single sentence, spoken in a house, passed on by witnesses and recorded on wax. For the court it was a piece of evidence; for us it is one of the rare places where ordinary people of antiquity can be heard in their own voice. Scholars still debate how the sentence should be interpreted and which side it helped.
That is exactly what a wax tablet can do: it does not preserve the great speeches of senators, but what was said, promised and witnessed in everyday life. Anyone who builds their own tablet with the Herculaneum Set holds in their hand the tool on which these voices were handed down.
Before the First Drop of Glue: Questions About the Herculaneum Craft Set
What do I need in addition to the set?
Wood glue and 120-grit sandpaper. Any standard white glue or solvent-free craft glue suitable for wood is appropriate. Both are deliberately not included because they are available in most craft rooms and households. This saves packaging and keeps the price per set low.
When may the wax plate be inserted into the tablet?
Only once the glue has firmly set. Follow the information on the glue; when in doubt, let the tablets dry overnight. For school use, a two-unit structure has therefore proven useful: in the first unit, sanding and gluing are done; in the second, the wax is inserted and writing begins.
Were Roman wax tablets built this way too?
Not quite. Roman tablets were usually made from a single piece of wood; the writing surface was hollowed out a few millimetres deep and the raised edge remained. In the set, the same form is created in a simpler way: four strips are glued onto a board and form frame and recess. This allows children to build a tablet without carving tools, while still matching the original in structure and function.
From what age is the set suitable?
From six years, under adult supervision. Younger children need some help with sanding and gluing; most can then cut and insert the wax plate independently.
Can I insert new wax later?
Yes. If the writing surface becomes scratched after long use, the old wax is scraped out and replaced with a new plate. Wax plates are available as sets of 5 in all four colours. Anyone who prefers pouring can melt beeswax pastilles in a water bath and colour them with wax pigment if needed.
Trouble with the Neighbours, Recorded on Wax
Not every tablet from Herculaneum tells of great questions such as freedom or origin. One of them documents a very tangible dispute: the slaves of a neighbour had thrown stones at the front door of a certain Lucius Cominius Primus, presumably not on their own initiative. Cominius Primus had the incident recorded in writing, a Roman evidence protocol against the neighbourhood.
Almost two thousand years later, we can still read it. Neighbourly disputes are apparently timeless, and the wax tablet was the medium with which they were put on record.
Source: Wax tablet from the archive of L. Cominius Primus, Herculaneum, 1st century AD; cf. Catalano, Case, abitanti e culti di Ercolano, Rome 2002
Bibliography
Title: Tabulae Herculanenses I and II
Author: Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli
Publication: La Parola del Passato 1 and 3
Date: 1946 and 1948 (original tablets 75/76 AD)
Title: Il processo di Giusta
Author: Vincenzo Arangio-Ruiz
Publication: La Parola del Passato 3, pp. 165–184
Date: 1948
Title: The Case of Petronia Iusta
Author: Ernest Metzger
Publication: Revue Internationale des Droits de l’Antiquité, 3rd series
Date: 2000
Title: Case, abitanti e culti di Ercolano
Author: Virgilio Catalano
Publication: Bardi, Rome
Date: 2002
Further Links
Updated on: 14/10/2026
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