Stunning find in London archeological dig

A unique Roman stylus is to go on display for the first time in a new exhibition at the Ashmolean: Last Supper in Pompeii.

It was discovered by a team from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) during excavations on the bank of the river Walbrook, a lost tributary of the Thames.

The iron stylus - used to write on wax-filled wooden writing tablets - dates to around AD 70, just a few decades after Roman London was founded, reports the MOLA.

Unusually, it has an inscription, which was translated by classicist and epigrapher Dr Roger Tomlin. It reads:

"I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift
with a sharp point that you may remember me.
I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give)
as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty."

MOLA described it as "the Roman equivalent of 'I went to Rome and all I got you was this pen'."

- Read more on this story at MOLA