Mária T. Biró: The Bone Objects of the Roman Collection. (Catalogi Musei Nationalis Hungarici. Seria Archeologica 2; Budapest, 1994)

VII. THE SPREAD OF USING WRITTEN RECORDS — WRITING AND COUNTING IMPLEMENTS MADE OF BONE - 2. Styli - 3. Counting discs (calculi)

2. Styli (Nos. 561-568.) Fig. 26. Representation of a clerk from a tombstone in Virunum (Noricum) Both styli and ink-pots were made of wood, metal or bone. There is no bone ink-pot to be found in the Collection. While there are three types of styli to be distinguished. There are some fortunate cases when fragments first thought to be undefinable can be positively identified with the help of intact finds. Such was the case with the bone fragment from Szőny being the central part of a stylus. (No. 561.) The central part of the ivory stylus described in the British Museum Catalogue (Fig. 27.) entirely agrees in its shape, size and decoration with the prism from Szőny covered with oblique scratches. One end of the stilus to be reconstructed is pointed and serving for writing while the other is a bone spade thinner at the very end and the central part was shaped like a prism with carvings and plastically formed knobs making the grip easier.

106 There are two groups of styli that can be reconstructed: with one type scratches were made into the wax with the pointed tip of the stilus and with the other, spade-like surface superfluous texts were erased (stilo verso). (Nos. 562-568.) In the case of the other type only one end was used and they tried to model this one tip in such an optimal form that with it both scratching and erasing could be realized. The majority of bone styli surviving from provinces are of the latter type. The tip of the stilus was broad, spade-like, but, if the tip was slightly turned to one side, the spade gave in that view a wedged chisel form making the drawing of such fine lines possible as with the needle sharp tip of the former type. This stilus form is by no means a hypothetic reconstruction. In Britannia there survived a set consisting of writing tablet and a stilus made of bronze and bone.

107 (Nos. 562., 563., 566.) One-sided styli were also made with triangle or trapezoid shaped spades. The tip of the stilus from Szőny was triangular while the one from Dunapentele had a rectangle shape. (Nos. 562-565.) Fig. 27. Ivory stylus in the British Museum 3. Counting discs (calculi) (Nos. 569-573.) There were many fields of everyday life — commerce, army — where exact operations had to be done with big sums or with numbers of several places. (Fig. 28.) The numerical system of the Romans did not make the operations possible so easily solved by Arabic numerals. To facilitate counting mechanic devices were used and with the assistance of their fingers they elaborated a combination of signs which bridged over their difficulties. The counting tablets made of marble, stone, clay or wood were called ABACUS. The places were noted on this tablet and the counting discs, CALCULI were placed below the notation of place (Plinius, Epistolae VI. 33.). In the well-known picture on the Darius-vase the scribe is checking tax delivered with counting discs.

108 If the place is denoted on the discs in some way or other, then counting tablet is not necessary at all. Egger has published from his excavations at Magdalensberg a number of small bone discs. These discs were not lathe-turned; their form