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Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
This bottle was found with a skeleton in a stone coffin in a cemetery north-east of Caerleon Roman fortress. The bottle was found between the thigh bones of the skeleton. 3rd century A.D. Francis Fox, the excavator, referred to the bottle as a ‘lachrymatory’. Lachrymatories, or tear collectors, were reputedly used in funerary ceremonies to collect the tears of mourners. However, there is no evidence that these were used as such in the ancient Roman world. They were more likely to have contained unguents or ointments. The bottle is narrow, with a small base that makes it difficult to stand up. It has a narrow neck, and a concave mouth with an opening only approximately 5mm. It is pale greenish in colour.
Source: Fox, F. 1848. Archaeologia Cambrensis III
Site Name: Caerleon, Newport: Gwent
Notes: found during excavtions for a new railway near Caerleon
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