Byzantine iPad' discovered in shipwreck

Mods please move if not in the proper forum.
The 1,200-year-old wooden notebook and tool was the ancient equivalent of a modern tablet computer.

The artifact was recovered by Turkish archaeologists during the excavation of a harbor site in Istanbul where 37 shipwrecks have been found. The site was once an important commercial port during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I in the late 4th century.

www.livescience.com...

Nice find! pretty neat device I must say.

I wonder if they had free WiFi....

originally posted by: Teye22
Nice find! pretty neat device I must say.

I wonder if they had free WiFi....

Maybe homing pigeons?

a reply to: nighthawk1954

Awesome puzzle. I am wondering what they are basing their "note book" prognosis on?

To me it looks like it also could be a game or gambling device.

Which ever, neat find!

Thank you! It's fantastic to remember why I come here :-)

I think it is a bit of a reach to refer to it as an iPad.
It is a wooden tablet that is eraseable due to the fact that it has wax surfaces to scribe the notes into it. Oh, and it is a container for scale weights.

Starred! [I will Flag asap!]

Wow Amazing!







Balance (device for weighing): Mechanical

It is a shame it isn't also sporting a Touchstone (assaying tool), because that would have been just golden!

However, overall it is indeed a reasonable ancient Touchstone (metaphor) to compare the Ipad with!

I wonder what the messages written in greek detail?

Very sweet find! Thanks for the share!

a reply to: butcherguy

I'm resident asshole and skeptic, but I get his point. Principles are very similar in being a diverse handheld 'tablet' with multiple purposes. It's glorifying it a bit but it's the same train of thought, just the iPad and other better tablets have technology and progress behind them.
The OP copied the article headline as he should, you probably already know this and maybe are not aiming at the OP, and while it is exaggerating it in a way it gets the point across. It's an amazing discovery anyway and a true testament to what humans can accomplish given their imaginatio and whatever resources are available at the time.

I had an 'iPad' or rather Fujitsu Siemens tablet (Stylistic ST4120long before the iPad came out, but it was a bit crap, ran on a Pentium processor and had a horrid resistive touchscreen you couldn't see in... light... and ran Windows XP. I think it's still in my ex-wife's attic... In another country... I hope it's been destroyed.. The tablet I mean... This was in 2003.
Microsoft actually came up with the format in 2001, and the first Microsoft tablet came out in 2002 Microsoft Tablet PC

Apple came out with their 'idea' in 2010 The first iPad was released on April 3, 2010..

My point, as usual I digress so apologies, is that the idea has been along a very long time. Longer than we imagined maybe, but Apple worked out the secret. Make it stupid and crap enough that normal people want it and you'll always be remembered and everyone will buy one.Sorry, 'intuitaive'.

a reply to: AgentSmith
I wasn't aiming at the OP. The author of the article isn't even the one reaching. It was the Turkish archaeologists that made the claim.
The article was clear enough about what it consisted of, but didn't really get to the point of what the wax tablet pages were used for.
Here is what I think....
The 'ancient iPad' consisted of a storage box for a set of scales.
The scales were used to weigh something of value and this was tallied on the wax pages.

This may have been what was used for keeping track of the crew members pay.

a reply to: butcherguy

Yes I think you are likely right, it is a bit of an 'upworthy' style headline. I'm just trying to say that it's a better one out of some if you look at it as an example of how a certain style incorporating various functions has existed as an idea in some form for a very long time. It attracts attention for the right reasons for once maybe. Personally I would prefer people being excited for what something literally is but that rarely happens now.

Well, if they find a scribbled Facebook password somewhere, we'll have our final answer for the missing factors to the downfall of past civilizations.

Yup... That'll wrap it all up nicely.

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

Starred!

LMAO!

Indeed ... it is made of wood and wax and has no firewall to speak of and would of offered no virus protection either!

It is amazing what weighs up in the balance of things! [pun intended]

a reply to: Wrabbit2000
Not to mention a E-BAY account and a member of ATS!

This is why I come to ATS. Finds liek this always interest me. Not sure of the iPad reference but it's definatly an interesting find.
It looks like an all in one box for someone who's always on the move and needed to compact his or her most used bit and bobs.

S+F

Love reading up on this stuff