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In this video I will be making a wax tablet. Only a few finds suggests the use of wax tablets. And from those few only a couple of finds in Scandinavia. The other finds are from the outskirts of the Viking area but could be from some of the settlements. Examples from England and Novgorod in Russia. All of these finds could be imported goods. So for this item there is a lot of speculations. We do have many examples of styluses but of course these could have also been cloth pins or hair pins. The next issue it that the ability to write and read in among the vikings would have been very limited and aside from the runic inscriptions there is very little proof of written language. The main theory is that the wax tablets were connected to christianity. The strength of the wax tablets is that unlike paper or parchment it can be reused over and over and is waterproof so it don't spoil during travel. In one of the remains of a viking age wax tablet we see a runic carving that would have been hidden under the wax. This find in particular is dated to the 1200s though and thereby is more modern than the viking age. This is very interesting and could have many meanings. So was the wax tablet a common item among the vikings: most certainly no. But they are founds from the era and within the reasonable viking area if you include the farthest settlements. As for their use we can only guess. To write and transport messages, to keep track of trading goods like a log book containing numbers or representation of amounts, or just as the modern day iPad for doodling, drawing and simple leassure time. This following article is going through the archaeological evidence very nicely and I suggest reading here for further information and for pictures of the surviving finds. The article is in original language from the author but use google to translate.
Article: sagy.vikingove.cz/voskove-des...
All tools and gear and clothing in this video is based on finds from the Viking Age and serves as an example of how a traveling craftsman could have produced a wax tablet from simple tools and a few materials.