Bread and Circuses

Millefiori glass bowl found in Aldgate, London

Everyone has this story - and rightly so. A second/third century millefiori disk found in the Roman cemetery at Aldgate in London which has gone on show. It is one of the most beautiful pieces I have seen for a long time. The full press release is from the Museum of London which is displaying the bowl:

An exquisite Roman polychrome millefiori dish, newly discovered in East London, is going on display at Museum of London Docklands from 29 April 2009.  The dish is made up of hundreds of indented glass petals (the term millefiori means simply “a thousand flowers”) in an intricate repeated pattern and was found during excavations in Prescot Street, Aldgate, by L – P : Archaeology.  It was highly fragmented but miraculously held together by nothing more than the earth around it.  It has been painstakingly reassembled by Museum of London Archaeology conservator Liz Goodman.

The dish is extremely rare and an unprecedented find, not only from London but from across the Western Roman empire. Originally the blue translucent petals, bordered with white, would have been embedded in a bright red opaque glass matrix. The hue was still present when the dish was uncovered, with the vermillion appearance diminishing as the water-saturated glass dried out. The red colouring can be seen around the rim.  The complexity of its manufacture indicates that the dish was a highly-prized and valuable item. Beautifully crafted vessels like this were particularly in vogue in the 1st and early 2nd centuries. Dating is underway to establish the precise period of the find.

The dish formed part of the grave goods of a Roman Londoner whose cremated remains were uncovered, probably buried in a wooden container, in a cemetery in Londinium’s Eastern quarter. A number of other ceramic and glass vessels were also ranged along the sides of the casket, suggesting a rich and unusual burial.

The excavations at Prescot Street have continued the process of the recording of the extensive eastern cemetery of Roman London which, by law, lay outside the city wall. This and previous excavations have found both cremations and inhumations (burial of the body) that spanned over 400 years of Roman occupation from the late 1st to early 5th century. This burial came from an area of intense burials at the eastern end of the site where there was also a stone mausoleum, a possible funerary structure and a series of burial groups which perhaps indicate the on-going use of cemetery plots. Indeed, this particular burial had, at a later date, had another cremation burial interred on the same spot which may point to a family connection.

Liz Goodman, Museum of London Archaeology conservator said ““Piecing together and conserving such a complete artefact offered a rare and thrilling challenge.  We occasionally get tiny fragments of millefiori, but the opportunity to work on a whole artefact of this nature is extraordinary.  The dish is extremely fragile but the glasswork is intact and illuminates beautifully nearly two millennia after being crafted.”

Guy Hunt, Director, L – P : Archaeology said “The dig at Prescot Street produced an amazing range of Roman cemetery archaeology; it is fantastic for us that one of the many finds is such an exciting and beautiful object. It is great to be able to put an object such as this into context and to get a first hand impression of a rather wealthy east Londoner.”

The best coverage is Reuters, also at CNN, BBC and Daily Mail.

 

Can you monetise antiquities?

A fascinating piece by Reuters' Felix Salmon who has blogged from the Milken Conference on how to leverage developing countries’ antiquities. The panel discussion was triggered by a report last year which sugested that governments could turn their antiquities into an income stream by selling archaeological development bonds:

[The bonds would] address long-term community development as a means to bridge current funding gaps on national and local levels. The archaeological development bonds should target projects that bring financial benefit directly to local populations that would, as a result, increase their participation in and appreciation of their cultural heritage. A community in Peru, for example, could build a small museum around a Chimu site, while the federal Ministry of Culture prepares a new wing of the National Museum dedicated to Incan stonework from a sponsored dig in Cusco. Avoiding the bureaucratic traps that arise when national and regional funding bypasses local communities, the bonds would encourage economic growth on the ground, while providing overall returns.

This is not a new idea. It has been touted for a couple of years. One of the more articulate views on the subject comes from Michael Kremer, Gates Professor of Developing Societies at Harvard, in a 2007 paper "Antiquities: Long-Term Leases as an Alternative to Export Bans".

Salmon, of course, recognises the flaws in the proposal. He writes:

The problem with this is ... while it’s very easy to get excited about the arrows going to the right ("tapping into the U.S. and international investor market could open the door to unprecedented capital resources”), you can be sure that very few governments would be very happy about turning their antiquities into an income stream and then sending that money abroad, especially when a major component of the size of that return “would be determined by the market price of the objects” found at archaeological development sites.

The trouble is that I just don't buy any of it. I have no problem even putting a monetary value on antiquities, though many archaeologists and historians will scream as they read that sentence. The difficulty is, to paraphrase Marginal Revolution's comments on the idea a couple of years ago, that the antiquities market is driven by ownership.

Despite the claims of English Heritage, the rise of Nighthawking is unstoppable (see last Friday's story on the recovery of a statue of a late Roman female figure from Bulgaria as just the most recent example). While some finds do make their way to eBay and the open market, the majority are hoarded in private collections.

Museums are private collectors writ large. The difficulties in organising international loans for large exhibitions read like a plot from an Evelyn Waugh novel. Aside from the separate issue that it is never a good idea to politicise history, as a rule heritage and government do not work well together. While no one would disagree either that archaeology needs the cash or that archaeotourism can be profitable, this proposal is simply unworkable.

Roman kilns in Otford, Kent

I have been sitting on this for the past few days. Something about it does not ring quite right, but I can't work out what. The Sevenoaks Chronicle has a story about a couple of Roman structures, possibly kilns, found in Otford, Kent:

The last two weeks of an archeological project to excavate a site in the village drew to a close earlier this month with experts believing they may have unearthed two pottery kilns, each around 4m in diameter.

Until now it had not been thought that the firing of pottery – a huge industry in Roman times – was carried out in this area.

Sevenoaks archeologist Diarmaid Walshe spearheaded the dig.

He believes if scientific analysis proves his finds are kilns, Otford could have been at the centre of an industry that supplied pottery to Roman settlements all over the South East.

"If they are pottery kilns it's very important because, according to experts, there were no pottery kilns in this area.

"We can't confirm it yet, but on the face of it they do appear to be pottery kilns because we've got massive quantities of pottery sitting in there.

There are too many ifs in the story for my liking. Archaeologists did find a number of coins which dated from the first to the fourth centuries. Full story here.

Battle of Teutoburg Forest 2009, part 21

A more sober week of Varus/Arminius discussion than usual.

Several articles focus on Marcus Caelius (pictured below), first centurion of the Legion XVIII, who died at Teutoburg and whose gravestone is the only epigraphic evidence we have of the legion. Xanten is hosting a special exhibition: Marcus Caelius - Death in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. There is a note at Focus and a more detailed dpa report.

Welt Online has a solid piece on tactics that asks how it was that the Romans could lose. And nw-news.de has a look at the Varus exhibitions and what they mean for tourism.

Centurion and Legion IX

It was only a matter of time and the Mail, perhaps inevitably, has come up trumps with a spectacular load of bollocks written by William Napier (who should really know better) about the Legion IX:

For there was the defeat of Mons Graupius for the Picts to avenge, and, a generation before that, there was the dying curse of a flamehaired queen called Boudicca...

Somewhere out on those godforsaken Scottish moors, death closed in upon the brave, much-honoured IX Legion.

Only the faintest rumours ever returned of what had befallen the men - rumours of some terrible battle one winter's day among the heather-clad hills, of an alien army led into some lethal mire.

Of the red-crested foreigners fighting to a heroic finale in freezing rain and hail, a last small, wounded band gathered about their silver Eagle totem, fighting to the last man, the motto of every legion on their lips: 'Eagle lost - honour lost; honour lost - all lost.'

All we know for certain is that the IX Hispanica disappeared abruptly from the records, an entire legion vanished.

A fresh legion, the VI Victrix, was brought over from the Lower Rhine to replace them and stationed at York in AD122.

But one visible landmark remains testimony to the Ninth's disappearance.

When the new Emperor Hadrian visited Britain soon after, on hearing of the loss of the IX, he commanded a huge wall to be built, a wall studded with fortresses and watch towers, 80 miles from the Solway to the Tyne.

Oh dear. The full story is here, if you must. As I have mentioned before, the best overview of Legio VIIII Hispana is at Livius.org.

The hook for Napier's drivel is the competing Roman films about the Legion IX currently in production. On the same suject and much better, Den of Geeks has an on set interview with Neil Marshall, director of the film Centurion.

Stolen from Waldgirmes

A fascinating story in Zeit Online about the gilt statue that stood in the Forum in Waldgirmes, the Roman settlement east of the Rhine that was abandoned after the battle of Teutoburg Forest. A piece of it has turned up in Wetzlar:

Einen bemerkenswerten Fund haben Archäologen bei Grabungen in Hessen gemacht: Sie entdeckten ein 118 Gramm schweres Bronzefragment, das zu einer lebensgroßen vergoldeten Reiterstatue gehört, die in der römischen Stadtgründung bei Waldgirmes an der Lahn im heutigen Hessen gestanden hat.

Das bereits im Februar entdeckte Stück schließt eine wichtige Lücke in der Geschichte der Eisenherstellung an der Lahn bei Wetzlar, wo Menschen schon vor mehr als 2000 Jahren siedelten und Eisen herstellten. Seit dem Jahr 2006 graben Forscher um Andreas Schäfer von der Universität Jena hier.

It appears to have been taken from Waldgirmes after Varus' defeat, possibly even by inhabitants.

Genau in diese Zeit fällt nun das entdeckte Bruchstück. Es stammt aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach von einer Statue im nahegelegenen Waldgirmes, einer römischen Provinzstadt, die nach der Varusschlacht im Teutoburger Wald im Jahr 9 n. Chr. geplündert und zerstört wurde.

Daher ist der Fund ein Glücksgriff für die Archäologen: Er zeigt, dass spätestens in diesem Jahr der Eisenproduktionsort wieder besiedelt war. Vielleicht waren die Bewohner sogar an der Plünderung von Waldgirmes beteiligt.

I did a note about Waldgirmes almost three years ago. More here.

The Transition to Late Antiquity

A treat in the form of Andrew Poulter's The Transition to Late Antiquity available for download for free from the British Academy.

All of it looks good, but noteworthy is Poulter's article "The Transition to Late Antiquity", Peter Heather's "Goths in the Roman Balkans c.350–50"; Peter Guest's "Coin Circulation in the Balkans in Late Antiquity" and Neil Christie's "From the Danube to the Po: the Defence of Pannonia and Italy in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries AD". 

Statue from late antiquity seized in Bulgaria

A frustratingly brief story from the Sofia News Agency of a well-preserved life-sized statue of a female figure dating to the later Roman empire that Bulgarian police in Veliko Tarnovo seized when they broke a illegal treasure-hunting group:

Employees from the Main Directorate "Criminal Police" busted Friday an illegal treasure-hunting group in the vicinity of the city of Veliko Tarnovo.

The authorities found in the group's possession and confiscated a very well preserved antique statue dating from the Roman Empire.

The group included four individuals, ages 35 to 55, some of them with criminal records, related to illegal treasure-hunting.

The group dealt with illegal archaeological excavations and trade of objects with cultural and historical value.

The antique statue is made from marble and portrays a life-size woman. It dates from the late Roman period. Preliminary expert reports estimate its value at hundreds of thousands of EUR.

The statue will be send for storage and further expertise to the National Historical Museum (NIM). NIM considers the statue a precious and unique acquisition since it is entirely preserved, including its base, something deemed very rare by experts. Most of the finds form the same period have broken arms, heads and noses.

It is a huge problem in Bulgaria. See previous stories here and here.

Christopher Smith: new director of the BSR

A quick one. Christopher Smith will succeed Andrew Wallace-Hadrill as the 15th director of the British School at Rome. He takes up his position on October 1. The press release on his appointment is here. There is a NIB in the Dundee Courier:

St Andrews University’s vice-principal is to be the next director of the British School at Rome.

Professor Christopher Smith (43) will step into the role at the institution, which caters for scholars and fine artists from the UK and the Commonwealth, in October. He is also proctor and provost of St Leonard’s College and, in addition to his post as vice-principal at St Andrews, he is dean of graduate studies.

He is an ancient history graduate of Keble College, Oxford, and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland, Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Chairman of the Council of the British School at Rome, Sir Ivor Roberts, said, “Professor Smith brings an impressive range of talents to his new job, both as a distinguished historian with a particular interest in early Rome and Latium and a strategic manager at one of Britain’s leading universities.”

The British School at Rome is a centre for research on the archaeology, history and culture of Italy and for contemporary art and architecture.

Radio silence

Apologies for radio silence. Trying to finish a lengthy article on Teutoburg and up against deadline. Normal service should be resumed by the weekend.