UK's oldest hand-written document 'at Roman London dig'

Re:UK's oldest hand-written document 'at Roman London dig' by secant on Saturday June 04, 2016 @01:57PM (#11837215)

What strikes me most about these documents is the mundanity of life back then. Like an agreement to pay someone back is one of them (a basic IOU), the other is a telling off for some financial reason. It's strange to think back then people were having equivalent disagreements and deals as they have now.

Ancient times always tend to feel very untouchable because of the massive span of time separating us and them, but I see that the basic tenets of human life still existed back then from this limited material. It makes me wonder how far back we would have to go back to find proto-civilisations that make no sense, human sacrifice not withstanding.

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Re:UK's oldest hand-written document 'at Roman London dig' by fapjacks on Sunday June 05, 2016 @04:16AM (#11840104)

You can get this same sort of feeling from the various graffiti found preserved in places like Pompeii. I am extremely interested in this very thing. If two thousand years doesn't separate everyday people from "the normal problems" that we experience, I wonder equally if I could go back ten thousand or fifteen thousand years and have the same kinds of thoughts ("Arkurush has refused to pay for the chickens I gave him").

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