Oldest handwritten documents in UK unearthed in City dig

Early writings found under office block being cleared for new Bloomberg HQ give glimpse of Roman London

Tertius the Brewer, Junius the Cooper and Julius Classicus - the up-and-coming military commander who would turn traitor against Rome a decade later - have sprung back to life from the first decade of Roman London, their names - along with the first reference to London itself - miraculously preserved on writing tablets in a sodden hole in the heart of the City.

The wooden tablets, preserving the faint marks of the words written on bees wax with a metal stylus almost 2,000 years ago, are the oldest handwritten documents ever found in the UK.