Description: stylus, stylus or Roman pencil. It is elongated, with a cylindrical-conical section that increases slightly towards the tip, where it tapers to a point. 8.3 × 0.8 cm.
Manufacture: Made of bone, probably using the double-grooving technique.
Function: the stylus was normally used to write on wooden tablets coated with beeswax (tabulae ceratae). The instrument usually had a bevelled, flat surface at the opposite end that was used for erasing. These tablets were very suitable for quick notes. They could be easily reused by applying a new layer of wax.
Place of origin: Peñón de Salobreña.
Culture and chronology: Bone styluses appear in early medieval and especially late antique Roman contexts, persisting into the high Middle Ages. Short, widened examples, such as the one from Peñón, are more typical of the Late Empire (4th–5th centuries).
Historical-archaeological context: In the context of Peñón, it is likely that this stylus was part of the grave goods of a tomb in the probable late Roman necropolis; or that it had been used, together with several remains of scales and weights, for accounting for fish catches. However, both explanations are not incompatible.