Examples of original and processed images, stills from the filmed sessions of the re-transcription of the Frisian "Ox" tablet, as well as a (non-final) version of the overlaid drawn text. The original edition of the text (1917) interpreted the text as a bill of sale of an ox [1]. Prof. Bowman, Dr Tomlin, Dr Crowther and Prof. Worp, looking to get a clearer reading of the date in the text, revised the original transcription; it is now interpreted as a debt acknowledgment [2], where no trace of an ox could be found...

[1] C. W. Vollgraff, “De tabella emptionis aetatis Traiani nuper in Frisia reperta,” Mnemosyne, vol. XLV, pp. 341–52, 1917.

[2] A. Bowman, R. S. O. Tomlin, and K. A. Worp, “Emptio bovis Frisica: the ‘Frisian ox sale’ reconsidered,” The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 99, pp. 156–70, 2009.

Note that despite the high resolution of the original images (4080x4080 pixels), which gives them their apparent large size, the actual tablet is approximately the size of a modern postcard. (A non-cropped picture of the tablet is visible on image 5/9; when shown cropped, the image corresponds to the recess in the wood.)