Tuesday Times Tables: The Curses and the Sacred Spring

One of my favourite jobs during my internship at the The Roman Baths has been working on my Tuesday Times Table. I chose to show to the visitors the curse tablets and the other objects thrown into the Sacred Spring by the Romans. The curses are tablets made of lead and pewter, inscribed by hand and dedicated by people to the goddess Sulis Minerva (as well as Mars and Mercury), asking for revenge and justice for missing objects, probably stolen. Some of them were folded or rolled. Most of the curses are written in colloquial Latin, specifically the Vulgar Latin of the Romano-British population. The tablets contain religious prayers and Roman and Celtic names. Some of them are written in capital letters, others using the old or new Roman cursive and others are illiterate. In the Sacred Spring were found many other objects like coins, jewellery, vessels and wood and stone objects. They were all offerings to the goddess.

During my display by the Great Bath many people seemed to be interested in my project. I had a table on which I could show the objects, in particular the curses with a display board with some further details. People were invited to handle every object (well in their boxes!) and this is the very good thing about the Tuesday Times Tables, because usually people can’t handle objects in museums, but thanks to this project they could personally discover the finds, and they were very surprised by this, and sometimes hesitant!

My handling table by the Great Bath

At my table there was an activity for children too. They could try to write their names using the ancient cursive Roman alphabet. This activity became very popular with adults too, many people tried to write their names or other words with the alphabet and they realised that it is very different from the English alphabet and that there are missing letters!

Stefania Ballocco

Universita’ degli studi di Cagliari (Italy)

Erasmus intern with the Collections team

Le maledizioni e la fonte sacra

Uno degli incarichi svolti durante il mio tirocinio al Roman Bath Museum e’ stato lavorare al Tuesaday Time Table, un progetto che prevede l’esposizione al pubblico di oggetti normalmente non visibili. Ho scelto di mostrare ai visitatori le tavolette delle maledizioni e gli altri oggetti che venivano riposti nella fonte sacra dai Romani.

Le maledizioni sono tavolette di piombo o peltro, incise a mano e dedicate alla dea Sulis Minerva. I dedicatari chidevano giustizia e vendetta per oggetti persi, probabilmente rubati. Alcune di queste sono state ritrovate nella fonte piegate o arrotolate. La maggior parte sono scritte in latino colloquilale, in particolare e’ stato usato il latino volgare della popolazioni Romano –britanniche. Le tavolette contengono preghiere alla dea e sono una fonte per lo studio e la conoscenza dell’onomastica romana e celtica. Alcune sono state scritte in stampatello, altre utilizzando il corsivo, altre ancora sono incomprensibili o illegibili. Nella fonte sacra sono stati ritrovati molti altri oggetti, quali monete, vasi, gioielli,  e oggetti in osso e in pietra. Erano tutte offerte per la dea.

Durante l’esposizione nel Great Bath i visitatori del museo si sono mostrati interessati al mio progetto.  Ho esposto le maledizioni e gli altri oggetti in un tavolo, nel quale si trovava anche un pannello con informazioni aggiuntive. Le persone erano invitate a toccare con mano ogni oggetto (posto ovviamente all’interno della sua scatola!), e questa e’ la vera cosa interessante del Tuesday Time Table, in quanto di solito i visitatori nei musei non possono toccare gli oggetti, ma grazie a questo progetto possono scoprirli personalmente, e molti di loro sono sorpresi da questo, alcuni addirittura esitanti.

La mia esposizione nel Great Bath

Nel mio tavolo c’era anche un attivita’ dedicata ai bambini, i quali potevano provare a scrivere il loro nome usando l’antico alfabeto latino corsivo. Questa attivita’ e’ diventata molto popolare anche tra gli adulti, che si sono cimentati nel provare a scrivere i loro nomi e altre parole, scoprendo che l’antico alfabeto latino e’ completamente diverso da quello inglese e che molte lettere sono assenti!

Stefania Ballocco

Universita’ degli studi di Cagliari 

The Theme of Love

Mosaic depicting Cupid astride a Dolphin - Fishbourne

Just now, I was preparing to start with heavy fighting
and violent war, with a measure to fit the matter.
Good enough for lesser verse – laughed Cupid
so they say, and stole a foot away.
‘Cruel boy, who gave you power over this song?
Poets are the Muses’, we’re not in your crowd.

What if Venus snatched golden Minerva’s weapons,
while golden Minerva fanned the flaming fires?
Who’d approve of Ceres ruling the wooded hills,
with the Virgin’s quiver to cultivate the fields?
Who’d grant long-haired Phoebus a sharp spear,
while Mars played the Aonian lyre?

You’ve a mighty kingdom, boy, and too much power,
ambitious one, why aspire to fresh works?
Or is everything yours? Are Helicon’s metres yours?
Is even Phoebus’s lyre now barely his at all?
I’ve risen to it well, in the first line, on a clean page,
the next one’s weakened my strength:
and I’ve no theme fitting for lighter verses,
no boy or elegant long-haired girl.’

I was singing, while he quickly selected an arrow
from his open quiver, to engineer my ruin,
and vigorously bent the sinuous bow against his knee.
and said, ‘Poet take this effort for your song!’
Woe is me! That boy has true shafts.
I burn, and Love rules my vacant heart.
My work rises in six beats, sinks in five:
farewell hard fighting with your measure!
Muse, garland your golden brow with Venus’s myrtle
culled from the shore, and sing on with eleven feet!

Translated from Ovid - Amores, Book I, Elegy I.

Scanning Sulis Minerva

Bronze head of Sulis Minerva

This week at the Roman Baths, Dr Annemarie La Pensée, from Conservation Technologies at the National Museum of Liverpool, has been scanning the original bronze head of Sulis Minerva. We hope to make a 3D image from the scanning process to aid interpretation and possibly shed light on how she was made. Here’s a little bit more on the object and what we hope to learn from the scans…..

Sulis Minerva awaiting scanning

Vital Statistics:

Roman Name: Minerva

Position: A major deity and one of the 12 Olympian Gods

Jurisdiction: Roman Goddess of Wisdom

Mythical Family Tree/Relatives: Daughter of Jupiter and Juno

Depiction / Description / Symbol: the owl, the snake and the olive tree

Greek equivalent: Pallas Athena

Festival: Quinquatria - March 19 through to March 23.

Celtic influence: Linked to unreferenced local deity - Sulis

The gilt bronze head of the goddess Sulis Minerva is one of the best known objects from Roman Britain. Discovered in 1727, it was the first indication that the Roman site at Bath was not a typical settlement. Gilt bronze sculptures are rare finds from Roman Britain; only two other fragments are known.

The head has a fascinating story to tell that can be gleaned from the circumstances of discovery and its condition and from scientific examination.

First of all, we should note that the head is slightly larger than life size, suggesting that the original statue, of which it formed a part, was an imposing sight. For many of those who saw it, there may have been no previous encounter with an object of such awesome, golden brilliance.

Hidden in the hair line are several small holes which once held rivets that fixed her tall Corinthian helmet to her head.

Examination of the head has revealed that it has six layers of gilding. The first two use a technique known as fire gilding whilst the four latter layers are applied as gold leaf.

When looking closely at the head, we can see that it has a number of imperfections. There is corrosion which has affected it in parts where it lay in the ground for over a thousand years. There is also a strange rectangular cut beneath the chin. It is thought that this may have resulted from a flaw in the original casting process in which a bubble on the surface may have been cut out and filled with an inserted plate. When gilded over, it would not have been visible to a casual observer. This plate has subsequently fallen out as a result of corrosion whilst in the ground.

What more can scanning tell us?
In creating a 3D scan, we should be able to see these imperfections much more clearly. We also hope to better understand the casting process, in particular, where the molten metal would have been fed into the mould….

Sulis Minerva being scanned

Keep an eye on the BlogSpot for the latest news and results……

For an in-depth discussion on the head of Minerva, visit our webpage by following the link below:

http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/walkthrough/6_temple_courtyard/minervas_head,_detailed_look.aspx

Helen Harman - Collections Assistant

Web of Deceit

When working on the “Gift’s for the Goddess” display table during Heritage Open Week, I came across a replica of an ancient Roman spindle whorl. Being who I am, I was intrigued to find out more about this strange little round item, especially how it worked. Learning how it twists the thread into long strands ready for weaving reminded me of a Roman myth of a weaving competition between Minerva and Arachne. The story goes as follows…

Arachne was considered the best weaver of textiles of all mortals. People across the lands would come watch her as she created the most beautiful textiles with such grace. One day, Arachne claimed to the public that she could out weave the goddess Minerva. Unfortunately, after Minerva heard this, she was not pleased and disguised herself as an old woman. The goddess went to visit Arachne and under her disguise she warned Arachne about the wrath of the gods and to not tempt the goddess Minerva. Arachne having heard the advice, refused to do so. Minerva took away her disguise and stood before Arachne and declared she would accept her challenge. Arachne surprised and bashfully agreed to do so.

Minerva

Many gathered around the competitors as they took their stations and attached the webs to the beam. They watched in awe as they elegantly spread the slender shuttle in and out along the thread. Both of them worked with such skill and speed. Eventually the colourful images started to form on the textiles.

Weaving loom

Minerva displayed the story of her triumph over Neptune in claiming the city of Athens. Arachne wove stories of gods who failed or caused errors to mortal kind.

This outraged Minerva and she destroyed Arachne’s beautiful textile. The goddess then placed shame into Arachne’s heart for defying the gods.

The next day Arachne felt such guilt and shame that she tried to take her own life. Minerva, having heard this, felt pity on Arachne and went to visit her. While standing before Arachne she said “Live, guilty woman and that you preserve the memory of this lesson…” and promptly turned Arachne into a spider.

(Want to learn how to use a Roman Spindle Whorl?...keep reading there will be more on that later!)

Aquae Sulis

Aquae Sulis is the Roman name for Bath. Many people mistakenly think that it is the name for the baths themselves, but it is actually the name of the Roman settlement which became Bath. The name ‘Bath’ dates to the 6th century.

The city of Bath has been continuously occupied since Roman times, although the area had been lived in long before that. In the Saxon period the place name was first Aquaemann, which was a name designed to not be associated with a religion (as Aquae Sulis was associated with the Celtic and Roman religions as Sulis was a Celtic goddess and Minerva a Roman goddess). Mann was an Old Welsh word meaning place, so the new name meant 'place of the waters'. However, Bath was also known by the Saxons as Akemannceaster, which references the healing powers of the waters, and 'Hat Bathu'. The modern version of the Saxon name, Bath, evolved from the latter.

As you can see, Bath has had many names throughout the ages, but it has been a constant presence, mostly due to its natural hot springs, which throughout history have been said to have healing powers. However, the city itself began as Aquae Sulis.

The Sacred Waters and Baths in Aquae Sulis

Much of Aquae Sulis, or Roman Bath, was destroyed (while in ruins) by King Alfred the Great and his son who reorganised Bath and provided it with a new street layout.

The Baths and Temples of Aquae Sulis

Aquae Sulis translates as ‘the waters of Sulis,’ so you can see why many people make the mistake of thinking it refers to the baths.


Katrina Elizabeth

Found It! - Pop Quiz!

Pop Quiz:

Who discovered the Baths?

a) a prince
b) a major
c) some pigs
d) the Romans

Excavations at the Great Baths

Answer: A B or C.

When the Romans came to Bath in the first century AD the local Celtic tribe was the Dobunni . The Dobunni had been worshiping a local god called Sulis.

Twenty years later the Romans built a religious and bathing complex on the site. They dedicated the temple to Sulis Minerva, a combination of the Celtic god Sulis and the Roman Goddess Minerva.

The Roman bathing complex fell into disrepair after the Fall of Rome but people continued to enjoy the hot spring, building new facilities over it. In 1878, Major Charles Davis unearthed the Great Bath when he was looking for the source of leak.

While some would credit the Medieval King Edgar as the founder of Bath, others prefer to go back in time to 863 BC to a story about a man and his pigs.

According to the legend, it was King Lear’s father, Bladud who founded Bath, but if you read the legend carefully the spring was actually discovered by pigs.

Bladud had contracted leprosy while studying in Greece. He was cast out of court when he got home for fear that the disease would spread to the rest of the court. Reduced to working as a swine herder, his pigs soon contracted the disease.

One day when he was out, his pigs started rolling around in some warm mud. Surprisingly, the pig’s skin had cleared after wallowing in the mud. Intrigued, he decided to jump in the mud too. Miraculously, his leprosy was cured.

The cured Bladud returned to court eventually becoming king.


Joanna

Public Programmes at the Roman Baths

If you’ve visited the Roman Baths anytime in these past ten years, and managed to drag your eyes away from the Great Bath long enough to look up - you may have seen a big, arching window. If you were there at the right time, there might have been wide-eyed kids looking back at you. That’s our Education Room.

An Inside View of the Education Room (We're usually much busier!)

Now, seeing as how we’re posting this blog at the end of the summer, you might be wondering - ‘what the heck are they doing writing about volunteering in education now? School’s not in session!’ This is very true. However, as Mark Twain once said, ‘you should never let school get in the way of your education.’

Throughout the summer, we ran loads of hands-on Roman events in our Education Room. Visitors got to hold real Roman tesserae (mosaic stones), count out replica Roman coins, pick up Roman tiles and bricks, smell and touch Roman cooking ingredients, and make their own Votive offerings to give to the goddess of healing, Sulis Minerva.

I think that the best part about the Roman Baths is that they are real. You get to stand where Romans stood, touch things they made, and really picture what it was like in your head a bit. Being encouraged to explore using all your senses? It’s magic.

One of the biggest things we try to do with our public programme is to get you, the visitor, to put yourself in that place a little more. The more personal you let it be, the more it means to you.

Next time you’re in a museum (any museum, not just ours) try focusing on one object. Think about what it would have sounded like or what it would have smelled like. If you can’t touch it, imagine what the texture would have felt like, or how warm it would be next to your skin. Just experience it!

 
Barbara

Sulis Minerva

Aquae Sulis, the Roman name for Bath translates as ‘the waters of Sulis.’

Sulis Minerva was a blending of Sulis, a local Celtic goddess associated with the springs, and Minerva, the Roman goddess often identified with the Greek Athena. Roman’s often combined their deities with local ones that had similar characteristics or myths. This was done in part to merge the two religions and two communities. By seeing the incorporation and acceptance of their own local cults into the Roman’s religion rather than seeing their replacement or destruction the conquered peoples were more likely to accept their conquerors and other aspects of the new culture that came with them.

Minerva was originally an Etruscan goddess, Minvre, associated with household arts and crafts, but under the Roman republic she quickly became associated with the Greek Athena and took on many of her characteristics. Athena was a goddess of crafts and skills, but was also the goddess of wisdom, intelligence, strategy and war. She was one of the twelve Olympian gods and was born fully formed from Zeus’ head after Hephaestus treated Zeus for a headache by hitting him with an axe (do not try this at home, I promise you a fully formed goddess will not be the result). Athena’s symbolic animal was the owl, which represented wisdom. As Minerva was merged with Sulis it seems likely that Sulis shared the associated traits of wisdom, curative powers, and martial prowess.

Cult Statue Head of Sulis Minerva

The head of Sulis Minerva that is part of the collections here at the Roman Baths was once crowned with a Corinthian helmet and was probably the cult statue in a temple dedicated to Sulis Minerva. Although the head does not say the name Sulis Minerva on it anywhere we know it must be of her because of many of its characteristics including its beauty, location, the fact that it was wearing a helmet, its likeness to other known statues, and the fact that it was re-gilded six times. Gilt bronze statues like this are very rare and reflect the importance of the deity and the wealth of the temple in which she was displayed. The head displays evidence of intentional destruction. It is thought that raiders or another religious group destroyed the statue in late Roman times. The statue head was found under a nearby street, just a few metres from where it is now displayed, when a sewer trench was dug in 1727.

Did you know that the name Sulis only appears in and around Bath?
This is due to the fact that Celtic deities like Sulis were commonly place associated deities.


Katrina Elizabeth