: The Romans

The leopard cup. 11.5cm (4.5 inches) tall.

Detail of the leopard handle, showing its finely worked features and silver spots.

Leopard cup being placed in the Scanning Electron Microscope.

X-rays of the cup.

Microphoto of the leopard's face.

Discovered in 2003, this exquisite Roman vessel has been the subject of detailed study at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales.

The bronze cup is one of the finest Roman vessels to have been found in Wales. It was discovered by Mr Gary Mapps near Abergavenny (Monmouthshire). It was reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, enabling the finds spot to be investigated.

Excavation of the site revealed that the cup had been placed upside down in a small pit containing a cremation. This cremation was part of a cemetery beside a Roman Road some distance from the mid 1st to early 2nd century fort at Abergavenny (Roman Gobannium). There is also a growing amount of evidence for a civilian settlement dating from the 2nd to 4th centuries in the neighbourhood of this cemetery.

The cup displays craftsmanship of a high standard and it was almost certainly manufactured in Italy during the 1st century AD. Very similar cups have been found at the doomed city of Pompeii, which was destroyed after the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79.

X-rays of the cup revealed that it was first cast in a mould using leaded bronze. Lead was added to help the molten bronze (principally copper and tin) flow more easily and improve the quality of the casting. Once this casting had been made the vessel was turned on a lathe with the use of a sharp cutting tool to produce its final shape.

The cup's decorative handle depicts a leopard which, in Roman mythology, appears as the draught-beast and companion of Bacchus, the god of wine. His worship involved feasting, drinking, music and dancing. Leopards, captured in both Africa and Asia, were also popular with the Romans for display and fighting in the amphitheatre arena.

The leopard handle was made separately using 'lost wax' casting. The first process was to make a wax model of the leopard. A clay mould was formed around the model and then heated to run off the wax. Leaded bronze was poured in to fill the space left by the wax and, after cooling, the mould was broken to remove the bronze handle.

Further work was undertaken on the finished casting: for example the tail and canine teeth, originally cast thicker, were cut away to form finer features. The spots were also chiselled out from the body after casting and inlaid with silver. The leopard was then attached to the cup using solder. The leopard's eyes, measuring about a millimetre in diameter, were also inlaid. Analysis of the remaining traces of inlay indicate that the eyes may have been of amber.

It is unknown whether the cup belonged to a member of the Roman army, or a native Briton from the nearby civilian settlement. Whichever is the case, this 1st century cup was a costly import and probably belonged to someone of status, who cherished it sufficiently to want it buried with them on their death.

Background Reading

Things Fall Apart: museum conservation in practice. National Museum Wales Books, 2006

Mrs T. V. Wheeler standing in entrance B of the amphitheatre during its excavation.

Reconstruction of the Caerleon amphitheatre by Alan Sorrell. The amphitheatre is shown as a masonry structure to its full height.

How the amphitheatre may have actually looked. Illustration by Dale Evans (1988) after the reconstruction by R. A. Anderson (1981). Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments, Crown Copyright.

Re-enactment at Caerleon.

Next to the Roman fortress at Caerleon, near Newport (south Wales), lies the remains of a well-preserved oval amphitheatre, known to local folklore as King Arthur's Round Table. The amphitheatre was excavated in the 1920s by Dr. Mortimer Wheeler, then Director at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales. Wheeler's reconstruction of how the amphitheatre may have looked has since been revised as subsequent discoveries have led to a re-think as to how it was constructed.

Securing funds for excavation

Wheeler exploited the connections with King Arthur to drum up sponsorship. The Daily Mail agreed to provide £1,000 for exclusive rights and daily reports on the excavation. The paper eventually trebled its original offer and presented the excavated remains to the then Office of Works (a predecessor of Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments) as a national monument.

Planning and excavating

In 1926, Wheeler took up the post of Keeper of the London Museum meaning he could not continue his direct involvement with the excavations, but the sponsorship from the Daily Mail made the project binding and urgent, so his wife, Tessa, took over the direction. Every evening a newsworthy story had to be sent to the Daily Mail on the day's discoveries, with 'sensational' headlines such as 'Where Gladiators Fought'.

A structure of earth and masonry

After the excavations were complete and nearly 30,000 tons of soil had been examined and removed from the site, the excavators concluded that the amphitheatre had been constructed around AD 80, several years after the initial foundation of the main fortress at Caerleon. In the report on the findings, published in 1928, the amphitheatre was reconstructed as an earth and masonry structure with the auditorium supported by a bank of earth retained by inner and outer walls of masonry supported and strengthened by buttresses. It was calculated that the original arena wall must have risen to a height of four metres while the external wall must have reached a height of about ten metres. The seats were almost certainly of wood, as no evidence of stone seats was discovered.

In 1939, Alan Sorrell, a well-known painter of archaeological reconstructions shows the amphitheatre built in masonry to its full height.

A new theory

In 1962, George Boon (from the Museum's Department of Archaeology) excavated a small trench in the bank of the amphitheatre, and caused a fundamental re-think of how the superstructure was constructed.

The original surface of the bank was uncovered not far below the turf, this meant that the banks were never higher than they are today. Cut into the surface of the bank were pits, a metre square and deep. Boon concluded that these pits had held large wooden beams forming an openwork timber grandstand. Since this discovery, reconstructions of the amphitheatre have been re-drawn showing its lower part in stone, but with a timber superstructure.

An amphitheatre of similar construction is shown on Trajan's Column at Dobreta, the Roman base on the Romanian side of the Danube bridge.

It has been estimated that the timber grandstand at Caerleon contained 6,000 seats, approximately the full complement of the legion. Events at the amphitheatre, although undoubtedly less bloody, continue to attract large audiences today with exiting re-enactments and other events staged regularly.

Background reading

• Caerleon Roman Fortress by J.K. Night. published by Cadw (2003)
• Isca: The Roman Legionary Fortress at Caerleon, Mon. by G.C. Boon. Published by the National Museum of Wales (1972)
• 'The Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon, Monmothshire' by T.V. -d R.E.M. Wheeler. In Archaeologica vol.78, p.111-218.

In 1998 two separate but significant discoveries were unearthed by metal detectorists in Monmouthshire - a unique hoard of roman coins from Rogiet and a gold ring from Raglan. Both finds were significant and fine examples of treasure that are now in the collections of Amgueddfa Cymru.

The Treasure Act of 1997

The Rogiet hoard, as found.

'Carausius and his brothers' (Rogiet hoard)

The Treasure Act of 1997 covers certain classes of coins and precious metal objects found in England and Wales and has extended legal protection to single objects of gold and silver and to virtually all coin hoards. The new regulations have provided improved protection for certain categories of newly-found antiquities, and better opportunities for preserving these for the public benefit.

Since the act came into force, staff from Amgueddfa Cymru have handled numerous finds, including the spectacular discoveries of an unique hoard of Roman coins from Rogiet and a massive gold signet ring from Raglan.

One of the finest hoards of roman coins ever found in Wales

In September 1998, thousands of Roman coins from the third century AD were discovered by Colin Roberts at Rogiet, Monmouthshire. This was one of the finest hoards ever recorded from Wales and were declared treasure in December 1998.

The 3,750 coins had been buried, possibly in a wooden box, around AD 295-6 (we believe this to be the date since there were no coins later than this in the box) and span a forty-year period, with twenty-two emperors represented, a sign of the political instability of the times.

Political trouble

Their deposit, and the owner's failure to recover them, probably relate to this military and political instability. At the same time, however, the currency of the Roman empire was going through major change. In AD 294-5, new gold, silver and copper alloy coins were introduced to uniform designs and standards empire-wide.

The hoard is made up of an unusual composition for a British find as the coins found in it were not circulated in great numbers here. The hoard is significant as it contains a number of faulty issues of the 260s, and also because it contains over 750 coins of the two individuals who declared themselves Emperor in Britain, Carausius (287-93) and Allectus (293-96). These are not often found in hoards and contain rare denominations representing a variety of warships.

Also included in the hoard is a particularly fine specimen, perhaps the best in existence, of a classic rarity of the Romano-British coinage series. In around 292, Carausius seems to have wanted official appreciation from the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, issuing coinage in their names as well as his own. He even depicted himself with the others on a single design, with the slogan 'Carausius and his brothers'. The feeling was not shared, and within a year Carausius was gone, murdered by his minister Allectus.

An ornate gold ring from Raglan

The Raglan Ring

In the same year as the Roman coins were unearthed at Rogiet, a massive and ornate gold signet ring was found near Raglan, Monmouthshire, by Ron Treadgold, and was also declared treasure. The ring has a circular bezel engraved with a design of a lion on a bed of flowers, within a single cable border with the legend: to yow feythfoull or feythfoull to yow and initials W A either side of the lion.

The finest example of late medieval gold jewellery to be found in Wales

The shoulders of the ring are decorated with flowers and leaves and is significant for the study of late medieval rings as very close comparisons exist in the engraving on the gold episcopal ring of John Stanbury, Bishop of Hereford (1452-1474), a mid 15th century cross from Winteringham, Lincolnshire and a gold ring from Godstow Priory, Oxfordshire. The Raglan ring is likely to date from the middle or third quarter of the 15th century, and is perhaps the finest example of late medieval gold jewellery ever to be found in Wales.

The ring's owner

The original owner of the seal has yet to be identified, though the finding of the ring near Raglan and initials W A make William Herbert, first Earl of Pembroke (executed after the battle of Banbury during the Wars of the Roses, in 1469) a possibility. He married Anne Devereux, and the initials might stand for William and Anne.

The size of the ring suggests that it was worn by a man, and the inscription may be regarded as a sign of faithfulness to his wife. Herbert was one of two men referred to as the 'chosen and faithful' to the new king, Edward IV, and on Edward's coronation he was ennobled. However, the identification of the ring as that of William Herbert is not proven and other names are possible.

At present, all that we can safely say is that the ring was a mark of rank, and probably belonged to an important officer or visitor to Raglan during the second half of the 15th century.

The Undy Coffin during excavation in 1996. The coffin was donated to Amgueddfa Cymru by David Mclean Homes Ltd.

The Undy Coffin being raised for transportation.

Inside surface of the coffin showing the tool marks of a pick and mason's point. Image © G. Lock.

The Undy Coffin.

In the 3rd or 4th century AD a young woman was buried in a stone coffin at Undy, Monmouthshire. 1600 years later her grave was rediscovered.

In 1996 workmen unearthed a coffin while digging foundations for new houses at Undy, Monmouthshire. Following their discovery the site was investigated by archaeologists, but it remains uncertain whether this was a lone burial of part of a small cemetery.

The coffin contained the skeleton of a young, right handed, adult, probably female, aged between 25 and 34 years old. The cause of her death is unknown, but radiocarbon dating revealed she was buried in the late 3rd or 4th century AD - when the Romans occupied Wales.

Although no grave goods were found, her burial suggests that she was a relatively wealthy woman, someone who could afford a stone coffin and a proper burial.

Burial rather than cremation

Burial in this manner had not always been the norm in Roman society. Until the late 2nd century AD most people were cremated; their ashes often being buried in a glass or pottery vessel. However from this time burial traditions began to change. New ideas about the afterlife required that the body be buried 'intact'. These ideas were due to influences from the eastern part of the Empire, including the rise of Christianity, with belief in bodily resurrection.

The coffin was an optional feature. The poor might be buried in a grave without a coffin. Coffins were produced in a range of materials including wood, lead and stone.

The Undy Coffin is made of Bath Stone, a light creamy coloured limestone which is soft and easily worked when first quarried, but hardens on exposure to the air. This stone is found in the region around the spa town of Bath, England (known to the Romans as Aquae Sulis, which translates as "The Waters of Sulis"). This area is some 20 miles (35km) south-east of Undy.

The Roman stonemasons who made it used a very similar range of tools to their modern counterparts. The surface of the Undy coffin preserves these toolmarks, including those made by adze-hammers, chisels, picks and masons points. The direction of the toolmarks indicates that the mason was left-handed.

Background Reading

"Tools and Techniques of the Roman Stonemason in Britain" by T. F. C. Blagg. In Brittania, vol. 7, p152-72 (1976).

"Stone Coffins of Gloucestershire" by R. N. Willmore. In Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucester Archaeological Society, vol. 61, p135-77 (1939).

Watercolour by F.G. Newton, 1905

Removing one of the panels

In 1988, archaeological excavations of the council chamber in the basilica (assembly hall) of the Roman town at Caerwent revealed a fine wall painting that has since been removed for conservation and display.

The painted plaster or fresco, 5m long and 1m high, was still attached to the south wall of the chamber. It had been previously recorded in watercolour by F. G. Newton in 1905, and had been covered over again.

The fresco shows an architectural perspective, with yellow pillars above a brown veined pink dado. A dark brown area in the central pillar may be part of a decorated panel, possibly containing the torso of a man.

It was decided to remove the fresco to prevent further deterioration as the plaster was extremely fragile.

After carefully covering the delicate artwork with muslin and glue, the painting was cut into five panels. Each enclosed in specially-designed boxes.

A variety of saws and chisels were used to separate the painted plaster from the wall. Since access to the back of each panel was restricted to its top edge and one side, this process was difficult, needing extreme patience and ingenuity.

It took a total of nine days to remove the painting, with the subsequent conservation and rebacking taking several years, the fresco is now conserved and stored at the National Museum, Cardiff.

Background Reading:

Caerwent Roman Town by R.J. Brewer. Published by Cadw (2006).