II. Finds Reported under the Portable Antiquities Scheme

Abstract

Antiquities Scheme was established in 1997 as an initiative to record archaeological objects found by members of the general public and was extended to the whole of England and Wales in 2003. 1 Surveys of Roman period finds recorded by the PAS have been published in Britannia annually since 2004. This tenth report gives an overview of the finds reported in 2012 and of their character and distribution. As in previous reports, descriptions then follow of significant individual artefacts recorded by Finds Liaison Officers in the year concerned, selected because of the interest of the iconography and/or their contribution to the understanding of object type or distribution, in some cases being exceptional items not previously recorded in the repertoire of small finds from the province or beyond. OVERVIEW Almost 25,000 artefacts of Roman date were recorded on the PAS database in 2012, a figure that, as in previous years, includes finds to which a date has been attributed that spans the late Iron Age and early Roman period. Table 1 shows the number of Roman non-ceramic artefacts recorded on the database by county and grouped by PAS region, as well as the two numerically most significant categories of finds, coins and brooches, and a third category of non-ceramic other finds. 2 Like last year's report, this abbreviated form of reporting replaces the former scheme, in which all non-ceramic finds were presented in their functional groupings. 3 The reports published for the years 2003-2010 in which the data were presented according to the former scheme provide a substantial sample for characterising PAS finds on a regional and provincial basis. The 2012 finds recorded by the PAS comprise 21,077 objects, excluding ceramics. 4 2,950 fragments of Roman pottery were also reported, as well as small quantities of architectural material (tesserae, wall-plaster and tiles) and ceramic and stone objects, including querns, weights and sculptural fragments. As in previous years coins are the most common Roman artefact recorded: the 17,242 individual coin finds recorded in 2012 account for 82 per cent of the total of metallic finds and include 24 Greek and Roman Provincial coins. 5 Roman coins reported this year take the total number documented by the scheme to c. 144,000, a total that reflects the continuing impact of the initiative to record large assemblages of Roman coins in toto. 6 The regional distribution of the coins reported this year closely resembles that of previous years, with much 1

II. Finds Reported under the Portable Antiquities Scheme

“…47 Among the zoomorphic terminals are further instances in avian form, including other examples of eagles, more readily comprehensible as a choice than some other species because of their association with Jupiter. 48 The Bosworth terminal is associated with other likely votive finds, including a statue fragment and many horse and rider brooches which are likely to derive from a temple site, the existence of which is supported by evidence from geophysical survey. 49 A doctoral thesis on these terminals and other priestly regalia items is currently in preparation by Alessandra Esposito, King's College London.…”

Bring Me Three Large Beers: Wooden Tankards at Roman Vindolanda

“…This is seen on other tankards that have both the metalwork and the wood surviving. A good example is the vessel from Langstone, which in addition to two wide copper‐alloy bands running around the body also has a strip of copper‐alloy around the lip (Worrell , 287, Fig. ).…”

“…Differential survival inevitably means that the wooden parts of the tankards are far less prevalent than the metal fittings. However, since the publication of Corcoran's paper four additional complete tankards have been recovered: Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland (O'Neill ; Raftery , 223–5), Langstone, Newport, Wales (Worrell , 285–7), Corbridge, Northumberland, England (Allason‐Jones and Bishop ) and Cromwell, Nottinghamshire, England (Horn ). In addition, some individual staves and stave fragments have been discovered, most recently associated with Roman material on the promontory fort at Drumanagh, Co. Dublin, Ireland (Cahill Wilson , 28).…”

Mithras in Scotland: A Mithraeum at Inveresk (East Lothian)

“…an amulet from Verulamium and a Cautes figure from Newton Kyme; Henig 1984, 188, fig. 93; Worrell 2008, 352–3.…”