TILE. A tile was a slab or a tablet of baked clay. Such tablets were used for writing in the cuneiform syllabary before 3000 b.c. While the clay was soft, impressions were made with a stylus. Then the clay tablet was placed in the sun to bake, or baked in an oven. Tiles were common roofing material through much of the ancient world, but houses in Pal. were usually roofed with a mixture of clay and straw. Roofing tiles are mentioned in Luke 5:19 and Mark 2:4. If the house was Palestinian, the reference is prob. to the clay on the roof. Greek and Rom. aliens prob. used tiles for their houses in Pal.