Collections Online

Burnt grain sample.

The original bulk sample is confirmed as being curated at the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, 22/11/2017 by Mette Marie Hald, Seniorforsker / Senior Researcher, Besøg Nationalmuseets hjemmeside http://www.natmus.dk

The sample on display at The National Roman Legion Museum is a small part of a litre sample that was recovered from outside the fortress at Caerleon during the 1958 excavations. This is an important collection for the study of military food supply and grain trade in Roman Britain. There is a variety of grain in the sample including wheat, wild oat, vetches/peas, but a large proportion of the material was spelt wheat. A large proportion of the grain was germinated which suggests that it was purposefully malted for brewing. The sample can be interpreted as a store of clean grain which had been malted, and then accidentally destroyed by fire. Malted grain is a relatively common find in Roman Britain, other military sites show evidence of this. There is also written evidence from the Vindolanda and Bloomberg writing tablets.

Source: Dr Lisa Lodwick. 2017. Department of Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Geography & Environmental Science, University of Reading.