Earliest Ballot Box Found

A team of archaeologists at Suffolk University have found what they believe to be the earliest such object in Britain.

The discovery was made during excavations near Mildenhall, Suffolk. Archaeologists already know about Roman occupation in the area and the spectacular Mildenhall treasure suggests that there was a thriving settlement nearby in the later Roman period. After early work in the conservation lab it seems that the ballot box dates to the 4th century AD, making it contemporary with the treasure, pictured here.

Rather than having a slot for a paper ballot slip, the ballot box discovered in Suffolk is of the type used by many associations today (including, until recently, the Society of Antiquities). The method uses different coloured balls. Each voter drops a coloured ball into the box, the colour of the ball indicating the voter’s preference. These balls are called ‘ballotas’. The method was devised in more recent times by English democracy pioneer Sir Henry Black (from whom we get the term ‘blackballed’).

The wooden box was preserved thanks to the waterlogged conditions in which it was found. Archaeologist Katie Harman, a research student working on the excavation, was thrilled to have been the one to discover the box:

I was gently digging through the mud when my trowel hit something. At first I couldn’t tell what it was but after carefully removing the surrounding soil I thought I had found a treasure chest. It’s amazing to think I am the first person to see this for 1600 years.

An early form of democracy is known to have been practiced by the Iron Age tribes under Roman occupation. Pliny the Elder, writing in the 1st century AD describes their primitive methods:

In the islands of the Britannae they have a curious method for selecting the leader of their tribe; they place a wooden stake into the ground, some 4 miles from the centre of the settlement and all the people run towards it; he who is first past this post is declared leader for a period of five years.

The contents of the box have caused some confusion. When excavating the box Harman said that ‘I lifted it out of the ground and it was very light. It felt like it was almost empty’. Scholars have begun to debate whether this could reflect the small number of people who would be eligible to vote in whatever election this artefact represents. A rival theory suggests that many Romans in the 4th century had such respect for the democratic process that they didn’t feel they could take part in the ballot for fear that they would cheapen the process with their ill-informed opinions.

Modern archaeological theory says that the symbolic nature of the box was more important than the actual use of it - hence the absence of wear marks where balls have been dropped in. Expert on early voting Dr Neil Suffrage commented that:

In order to be sure that democracy was really practiced at such an early date in Britain, we need evidence of balls. Without balls, ballots are just symbolic, and we can’t be sure that voting really mattered in any way.

It is implied in documentary sources that the Roman Emperor Valens Mendax may have doctored the result of the ballot leading to his election, causing resentment among rival factions and, eventually, leading to his downfall at the hands of the army. Ball fiddling is thought to have been common among Roman Emperors of the fourth century.

The box and its contents have been sent to the conservation lab at Suffolk University. Early tests suggest that this particular box was filled with a collection of balls of three colours: yellow, red and blue. A spokesperson for the university told the CBA:

We won’t be able to say much about the proportion of the different coloured balls until our work is complete in early May.

UPDATE: in case you were in any doubt, this was an April Fool’s Day joke: there is no Suffolk University (yet), no Dr Neil Suffrage (as far as we know), and there certainly wasn’t a Roman Emperor called Valens Mendax (though perhaps there should have been). The excavation shown in the image is in fact Vindolanda, and the ballot box belongs to the splendid Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, a CBA Affiliate Affiliate member, founded in 1710 and the oldest surviving learned society in the country. Our Community Archaeology Support Officer, Suzie Thomas, visited the society as part of her survey of voluntary groups in 2009 and took this picture. The image of the Bacchus dish from the Mildenhall treasure is, unmistakably, real.