A tabula ansata or tabella ansata (Latin for "tablet with handles", plural tabulae ansatae or tabellae ansatae) is a tablet with dovetailhandles.[1] It was a favorite form for votive tablets in Imperial Rome.[2]
Overview
Tabulae ansatae identifying soldiers' units have been found on the tegimenta (leather covers) of shields, for example in Vindonissa (Windisch, Switzerland).[3] Sculptural evidence, for example on the metopes from the Tropaeum Traiani (Adamclisi, Romania), shows that they were also used for the
same purpose on the shields.[4]
^Giroire, Cécile; Roger, Daniel (2007). Roman art from the Louvre. Hudson Hills Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-55595-283-9.
^Meyer, Elizabeth A. (2004). Legitimacy and law in the Roman world: tabulae in Roman belief and practice. Cambridge University Press. p. 28. ISBN 0-521-49701-9. LCCN 2003051532.
^See picture (source page)
^Tansey, Patrick (June 2008). "M. Titius, Menas and the insignia scutorum". Klio. Vol. 90, no. 1. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. pp. 68–70. doi:10.1524/klio.2008.0004.
^ a b cBarnard, Toby Christopher; Clark, Jane (1995). Lord Burlington: architecture, art and life. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 118–120. ISBN 1-85285-094-9.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tabulae ansatae.
Ancient tabula ansata made of metal from Italica (Spain).
Tabula ansata on the Shaykh Zwaydah (Cheikh Zouède) mosaic (source page), 4th century AD, Ismailia museum, Egypt, discovered in 1913 by Jean Clédat[1]
^Picirillo, Michele [in French] (2007). "Les mosaïques de la bande de Gaza". In Haldimann, Marc-André (ed.). Gaza à la croisée des civilisations: Contexte archéologique et historique. Chaman Edition. p. picture N°119. ISBN 978-2-9700435-5-3.