Leading you through the History of Lead

Lead has been known to man since c.7000 BC in Western Asia and it was utilised by the Ancient Egyptians and Chinese. It is still prevalent in modern society. Despite its early discovery, it was not until the Roman period that lead truly became widespread. 

Amy leading you through the history of lead

‘Lead was to Romans what plastic is to us.’ (H.Eschnaver & M.Stoeppler, Wine – An Enological Specimen Bank, 1992)

This statement perfectly highlights the extensive and reliant use of lead by the Romans. It has a low melting point which creates an easy and cheap resource to utilise; it was desirable. In the written texts of the period and from archaeology we have distinguished that lead was used from plumbing to makeup and cookware – to name a few.

Roman pewter vessel discovered in the Spring

Surely the Romans didn’t know it was poisonous if they utilised it so much? Incredibly, they did know. Cato the Elder (3^rd-2^nd BC) recommended the use of lead lined/coated vessels for food preparation as well adding it to wine and food as a sweetener and preservative. It leaves a sweet taste because of the formation of ‘sugar of lead’. Even though Vitruvius (1^st BC) reported the dangers of lead, it was continually utilised. 

Roman curse tablet describing the theft of a bracelet

One of my favourite uses of lead at the Roman Baths, are the curse tablets. Many curse tablets have been recovered from the Sacred Spring. These were small sheets of lead with inscriptions of names or wrongdoings, offered to the goddess Sulis Minerva. The weight of the lead would guarantee the curse would sink down in the water to reach the goddess, and it was cheap enough for most people to buy.

Papal bulla of Pope Joh XXII

The popularity of lead continued into the Medieval period. Some of its uses were: window came fragments, paint and alchemy. Some continued uses were weights, piping, and drink sweetening. One of the most interesting artefacts found in the Bath area is a lead bulla, a seal made of metal that would have been attached to a Papal Bull. On one side are the images of Saints Peter and Paul, on the other is the Pope’s name, Pope John XXII.

We move into the Post-Medieval period through to the modern day. Uses ranged from game pieces to paint, sweetener, and gasoline. Lead was still very prevalent in the 1600s-1800s and many people recorded poisoning from repeated exposure.

Lead crystal glass (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Lead was still utilised to make vessels, yet rather than for its sweetness, it was used to compose crystal glass. First used in the 1600s, this is a variety of glass where lead replaces the calcium. This process makes it easier to melt and improved the appearance with clarity and ease of decoration. Likewise, lead is often still used in the home through piping and paint, despite laws against such use in the 1970s.

Millenia after the Romans began to use it, lead is still considered practical despite its poisonous properties. How long will it endure?

Amy

Collections Volunteer

The Healing Waters of Bath

Caitlin presents the healing waters of Bath

The hot springs at Bath have long been considered to heal the sick. The Romans mainly used baths for leisure, but several writers, such as Pliny the Elder, Asclepiades and Celsus, talked about the therapeutic benefits.

In Britain, for about 1500 years the belief was that the hot water balanced the humours, which would make you healthy again. As the minerals gave it a dry taste and immersion made you urinate more, hot baths were considered hot/dry, which is odd, as you would think a hot bath would be hot/wet!

The four humours and their interactions

By the medieval period, the Church was against bathing, calling it a luxury. It considered the Roman baths to be immoral, so many baths fell into disrepair. Later, the Church condoned the use of bathing for healing/spiritual purification, and so in the 1100s the Kings Baths were built on the sacred spring by the Bishop of Bath at the time.

As the Baths became more and more popular, there were even some royal visitors such as King Charles I in the 1600s and Queen Anne in 1702 and 1703. By the Georgian period, people began to drink the water instead of bathing with the crowds. In 1706, the Pump Room was built for those who wished to drink the water, rather than bathe in it. Drinking the water became much more popular and trendier so the Pump Room was expanded in 1795.

Glass bottle for "NOTED BATH WATERS, 1894"

With more competition from other spa towns, like Tunbridge Wells and Leamington Spa, in Britain, new treatments were on offer at the Spa Treatment Centre in Bath, such as electrotherapy and needle douches. These new treatments boosted visitors, and by the 1890s, 100,000 people had visited the baths. It was also during this period that the remains of the Roman baths were revealed, although evidence of a Roman Bath house in the area had been known since 1755.

Spa treatment photographs. L: Man standing in needle douche; R: Man being lowered into the Hot Bath

The beginning of the 20^th century brought new treatment innovations with the discovery of radon and radiotherapy, which helped keep the Spa Treatment Centre visitors numbers high. However, after the Second World War, visitor numbers declined due to fewer people travelling for leisure, and in 1948, treatment centre was under the control of the NHS. Treatments soon were only available to those with a prescription, and then in 1978 the Bath treatment centres were shut after spa treatment therapy was dismissed by orthodox medicine.

Caitlin

Collections Volunteer

Ore-some Metalwork

The Roman Baths collection is full of amazing metalwork. In Roman and Iron Age Britain, lead, tin, copper and iron were mined and used for everything from tools to religious items.

Investigating an Iron Age coin at the Roman Baths

Imperial lead from the nearby Mendip Hills had several different uses at the Roman Baths. This malleable, waterproof metal was frequently used for plumbing — a word which actually comes from the Latin for lead: plumbum. Even now, the floor of the Great Bath is lined with Roman lead, which is still watertight after two thousand years!

The lead lining of the Great Bath

Lead could also be alloyed with tin (mined in Cornwall) to make pewter. Over 100 pewter curse tablets have been discovered at the Roman Baths, written and thrown into the Sacred Spring by victims of theft asking Sulis Minerva to punish the culprit. Pewter food and drink vessels were also tossed into the Spring as tribute for the goddess. Although these had a religious purpose, the Romans also stored wine in lead alloy vessels like these because it gave the wine a sweeter taste!

Roman pewter vessel discovered in the Spring

One of the curses is made from tin alone, and is an unusual circular shape. Perhaps it was once worn as a pendant before being thrown into the Spring, inscribed with a list of Celtic names.

Tin could also be alloyed with copper to make bronze. Copper was mined in Derbyshire and the Lake District. Since copper products are attractive and resistant to erosion, copper alloys were often used for delicate decorative items. My favourite example is the tiny bronze eagle figurine, once possibly attached to a vessel.

Copper alloy Roman eagle figurine 

Bronze and silver were used for coinage both before and after the Roman invasion of Britain. Iron Age coins were usually inscribed with pellets, crescents and lines, often making up the image of a head or triple-tailed horse. The Romans sometimes used orichalcum — an alloy of copper and zinc — in their coinage, too.

Iron Age coin showing stylised face on obverse and horse on reverse

Less attractive than copper, iron was used for more practical purposes. Iron ox shoes have been discovered in the farmlands north of Bath, and iron styluses were used for writing on wax tablets. Iron was mined in the wooded areas of the Forest of Dean and the Weald, where trees provided fuel for the charcoal smelting facilities.

Roman iron axe

Unfortunately, the acids and residues on our fingers cause metals to corrode, so they usually can’t be handled! However, we can still admire this ore-some metalwork from afar.

Ellie

Collections Volunteer

Baking Roman Bread

Learn about Roman bread with Laura!

“Two things only the people desire: bread, and the circus games.” Juvenal

Have you ever baked your own bread? Maybe. Ground your own flour by hand? Less likely. Why not use the current situation and improve your skills, learn something new and connect to the past. Bread has been a staple food in many parts around the globe for thousands of years. The same goes for the Romans who indeed seem to have been quite fond of bread, but how do we actually know this?

Not only do we have recipe books and letters about diets but also architectural remains of granaries and baker shops as well as environmental samples from archaeological excavations that can be analysed. 

While milling became more industrial when the Romans arrived in Britain – a large army and urban population needs to be fed – many households would grind their own flour to make their daily bread. Around Bath, we have found rotary hand querns that were used for that task. 

A Roman rotary quern

While this was more effective than pestle and mortar, it was still a strenuous hours-long task. No milling means no flour. No flour means no bread. And no bread could mean starvation.

Bread has been staple food for so long because it is a sufficient source of energy. Flour contains starch which is broken down by enzymes into glucose. During digestions this ultimately results in our bodies being fuelled up to do what we love to do. 

Baking Roman bread

Have you ever wondered what makes bread rise though? Essentially, glucose is transformed into carbon dioxide (gas) which, trapped in the gluten network, expands and causes the dough to rise. If you feel like experimenting a bit, fill a glass half full with some warm water, add a spoon of caster sugar and a spoon of yeast. Stir, wait and watch what happens in the next hour.

The Romans in fact made many different kinds of bread, leavened and unleavened. They seemed to have been very fond of spices as well. Coriander or poppy seeds were particularly popular with bread. A commonly used grain was spelt. 

Why not have a go with this recipe?

Make your own Roman bread at home

Spelt Bread Recipe

Ingredients

500g of spelt flour
300ml of warm water
7-10g of salt
~7g of quick action yeast

Method

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then add the water and knead the dough well for at least 5 minutes.
2. Cover the bowl and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, until the dough has doubled in size.
3. Knead the dough thoroughly until smooth and leave to rise again.
4. Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C Fan), flour a casserole or loaf pan (make sure it is fit for oven use!) and put the dough into it.
5. Bake in the oven for 40 – 50 minutes. (If baking in dish with a lid, leave the lid on for the first half, then remove for the second half).
6. The bread is ready when it sounds hollow. Leave to cool down before removing it from the dish.

You can vary this recipe by mixing in honey, olive oil, herbs, seeds, dried fruits or chopped nuts.

Bon Appetit!          

Laura Opel

Learning & Programmes Placement

Words on Wednesdays: Building (part 2!)

"Great buildings, like great mountains, are the work of centuries"

Victor Hugo

Last week's blog introduced you to Roman ceramic building materials (CBM), so today let's discover the science behind the study!

How and why is Roman CBM studied by archaeologists?

Archaeologists use a range of traditional and cutting-edge analytical techniques to study bricks and tiles. These range from morphology-based examinations, that is looking at their shape and function, to fabric analyses, which basically look at the recipes of clay and temper (an extra material added to clay to change its working or firing properties) used to make the artefacts. 

The author using portable x-ray fluorescence to analyse Roman tile (with kind permission from the Culver Archaeological Project)

Expensive scientific compositional techniques such as portable x-ray fluorescence, which gives an elemental profile for the object, are also occasionally used. These analyses often aim to source the brick or tile, seeking to work out where the object was made and how far it was transported. This is done in order to understand the scale of production and infrastructure in place for building materials across the Roman world. 

What relevance does Roman CBM have to our society?

While Roman brick and tile might seem like a dry and dusty subject (which the objects quite literally are!), my own PhD research at Bournemouth University on the Roman Baths is hoping to ask questions that make these materials relevant to how we understand our world. 

Roman CBM - part of the vaulted roof that would have enclosed the Great Bath

CBM was introduced into Britain by the Romans around the time of the Roman Conquest of Britain in 43 AD. The native people never used it and never produced it, and subsequently Roman brick and tile industries and workers have been assumed to be entirely imported from the continent. My research is hoping to check this assumption, exploring if there is evidence for the incorporation of local potters or other individuals into these industries. In this way, I will be exploring the role that the production and use of CBM played in the development of Romano-British identities. I aim to contribute to our understanding of how people thought of themselves and how they identified, whether native, Roman or somewhere in between, in this important period of British history. 

At a time where so many different British identities intersect, acknowledging and working to understand the complex role of identities in Britain’s past can also help us to understand our own contemporary society.

Thank you very much for reading, I hope this post has inspired you to look on humble brick and tile with a new light!

Owen Kearn

Bournemouth University PhD student

Words on Wednesdays: Building

"Great buildings, like great mountains, are the work of centuries"

Victor Hugo

A couple of months ago I presented a handling table at the Roman Baths for the Words on Wednesday events.  This blog aims to give a general overview of the use of ceramic buildings materials (CBM), that is bricks and tiles, in Roman Britain, as well as how and why archaeologists continue to study these materials and what relevance they have to our modern society.

Owen manning the handling table at the Roman Baths

What are bricks and tiles?

Bricks and tiles are rectangular or flat blocks of red or white clay that have been shaped and fired at high temperatures to produce the hard and durable building blocks of homes and buildings across the world.

How were bricks and tiles used in Roman Britain?

While the Romans used bricks of a range of unfamiliar shapes, at least to our modern eyes, they employed a lot of their bricks and tiles in the same way that we do today. This includes in building walls and structures as well as in roofing. The Romans are also famous for the construction of heated floors, known as hypocausts, and channelling hot air through buildings using specialised hollow tiles. Examples of these can still be seen throughout the Roman Baths at Bath, so keep an eye out for them the next time you visit!

A hypocaust in the West Baths at the Roman Baths

Stay tuned for next week's blog, where we find out how and why Roman CBM is studied by archaeologists, and what relevance this has today.

Owen Kearn

Bournemouth University PhD student

British Science Week: A Weighty Subject

To celebrate British Science Week 2019 (8^th – 17^th March) at the Roman Baths, several displays were set up around the museum on the Saturday to showcase some of the scientific aspects of Roman life on this ancient site. I set up a handling table, laid out with a selection of objects not currently on public display, to highlight the various different ways in which the Romans utilised lead.

Lead was used for a whole variety of things in the Roman period, such as slingshot missiles, make-up and anchors. The lead found here at the Roman Baths was mined locally in the Mendip Hills, where there is a large deposit of naturally-occurring ore. This was often combined with tin (from Cornwall) to form an alloy called pewter.

Bowl of a pewter spoon, missing its handle. Discovered in the Temple Precinct.

The majority of the Baths’ 130 curse tablets, all of which were published by R. S. O. Tomlin (Cunliffe 1988), are also composed of this alloy. Curse tablets were a means by which the victim of a crime – usually theft – could vent their anger and express their desire for revenge to be visited on the culprit, by writing a prayer to the goddess Sulis Minerva on the metal and throwing it into the Sacred Spring. 

A curse tablet was made by first melting some lead alloy, then leaving it to set after pouring it out. A thin sheet could then be fashioned out of the cool metal by hammering it, before the message was inscribed on the surface with a stylus.

Curse tablet inscribed with a list of names, originally folded five times.

A few examples were simply left in their original solidified state, resembling a smooth pebble, such as this:

Curse tablet inscribed with a list of names.

Pure lead was used as a sealing agent in more heavy-duty work. The Great Bath is still lined with the original lead sheeting laid down by the Romans to keep it watertight, a fragment of which was removed in the discovery of the Great Bath in 1871.

Lead sheet fragment from the Great Bath - deceptively heavy!

Thanks to its durability, a large quantity of Roman leadwork from the site has survived, allowing us a deeper insight into the Romans’ metallurgical practices.

Jack

Collections Volunteer

Bibliography:

Cunliffe, Barry (editor). The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath. Volume 2. The Finds from the Sacred Spring.  Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, 1988.

Gallop through History

The ability to complete hard jobs with minimal effort is an apt way to describe most technological innovations ever created by man.  For science week the decision to delve into the technology surrounding animal husbandry, in particular the Equus (horse in the language of the Romans: Latin.)

Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said: “The substitution of the internal combustion engine for the horse marked a very gloomy milestone in the progress of mankind.” 

This is certainly true, and although the day of the horse as the centre of many of our technological innovations is long past, I hoped to in some small way honour the creature that I consider man’s second best friend. 

When we first domesticated the horse, around 3500BC, it became quickly apparent that the creature would need proper treatment if it was to perform the heavy labour that was required of it.  Just as an army must have good boots to march many miles, the horse must also be provided with premium footwear.  Working in poor conditions caused horses to become lame, which was solved by the horseshoe; a sheet of metal hammered into the hoof to form a protective lining.  I hear all ye animal lovers cry out in indignation, but fear not!  The shoe, when fitted properly, only goes through the horse’s equivalent of a fingernail. 

Medieval Guildhall type horseshoe (left), post-medieval horseshoe (right)

Above you can see the evolution of the horseshoe from a medieval Guildhall type shoe to a later 17^th century style.  The style changes to better fit the horse, the inner arch point disappears with time.  A further point of interest is the overall greater size of the medieval shoe, likely for a draft horse (a horse that would have pulled a heavy wagon.) 

17th-18th century rowel spur

Another noteworthy object in our beautiful collection is a 17^th- 18^th century rowel spur (albeit missing the rowel - the circular spinning part.  When the horse became a practical way for our ancestors to get around, and even later sit atop and charge battle, the spur was developed so that the rider could communicate more complex manoeuvres to his mount.  At first the ‘prick spur’ did little more than to jab the horse but later the rowel spur was developed to be more gentle. 

Through my journey into the Roman Baths Collection I have only deepened my already considerable respect for the horse and those who mastered it, as Churchill said, for the “progress of mankind.” 

Cameron

Volunteer

A Female Burial: The Specialist Studies

Continuing on from last week’s blog about my favourite lady, this week’s blog is about the specialist studies conducted on the two burials from Walcot Street. Stable isotope analysis and DNA studies were carried out on both individuals in order to learn more about these burials.

The excavation of my favourite lady

In order to learn about an individual’s diet, bone collagen can be used for isotope analysis. The term “you are what you eat” often rings true! Our body tissues have been formed using components from the food we have consumed over our lifetimes and these affect the ratio of stable isotopes in our bodies. These ratios can be measured to determine what food types a human consumed in their lifetime. This can reveal a huge amount of information about their diet and status.

The preservation of my favourite lady’s bone collagen was incredible and the results from the isotope analysis show that she was getting around 10-20% of her dietary protein from marine sources. The isotope analysis results were compared to the Romano-British population of Poundbury, Dorset where marine foods indicated high status. 

Although my favourite lady was obtaining around 10-20% of her protein from marine sources, that still did not place her within the ‘elite’ groups from the comparative site. She also was not placed within the ‘normal’ group of individuals so it can be assumed that her status was somewhere in between these. The results were compared to those at Poundbury because as far as we can tell, my favourite lady was Roman. However, ‘Roman’ covers a long period of time, and sadly we don’t have enough information to pinpoint her date more accurately.

Results from the isotope analysis of bone collagen from the male and female burials, created by M.P. Richards from the University of Bradford, 2001

The male from Syria is closely linked with my favourite lady as they were found at the same time. Studies were conducted into investigating whether these two individuals were related, and DNA analysis can potentially answer these questions. Teeth were extracted from both the Syrian man and my favourite lady in order to establish any kinship links through mitochondrial DNA (which is passed down from mother to child through generations). 

The result from these studies suggests that the male is from North Africa/Middle East and that my favourite lady has a maternal lineage of British/Scandinavian origin. It is emphasised in the report that these results only rule out the fact that these individuals are not related through maternal heritage, but does not rule out any other kinship links!

My favourite lady's teeth, used to study the mitochondrial DNA

Although we have been able to learn a huge amount of information about my favourite lady from her skeleton and specialist studies, there is still a sense of mystery surrounding her! Maybe one day these questions can be answered…

Dulcie Newbury

Collections Intern

A female burial: The hobbled road to recognition.

Two burials, one male and one female, were discovered in 1999 during an excavation on Walcot Street undertaken by Bath Archaeological Trust. Both of these burials attracted a lot of interest from the public and media, including an episode of ‘Meet the Ancestors’ on BBC. One of these burials (the male from Syria) is currently on display within the museum; however the second burial is not.

I first became interested in these burials during my A Level studies; however since starting my placement at the Roman Baths my interest in the female burial has grown enormously. The female is often referred to as ‘the female buried with the Syrian man’. I dislike this term as I feel like it means the interest lies primarily with the male, and the female does not get the interest or recognition she deserves so I prefer to refer to her as ‘my favourite lady’!

 

The cranium of my favourite lady

A number of interesting things can be discovered through the study of the skeleton, and luckily 90% of my favourite lady’s skeleton is present. From looking at the pelvis there is no doubt that this individual is female and from studying the length of her femur it is estimated that she was roughly 5ft tall. The wear on her teeth places her between 26-45 years old, with a closer estimation of 30 years old.

The mandible of my favourite lady. The wear on the teeth was examined to estimate her age

The pelvis of my favourite lady, used to determine her sex

Another interesting aspect of this skeleton is the severe compound fracture on both her tibia and fibula which would have pierced her skin and caused a lot of damage. There is evidence for very minimal treatment of this injury, whereas today’s treatment for such a severe fracture would be urgent surgery, antibiotics to treat infection, and internal/external fixtures. It is incredible to think that my favourite lady had such minimal treatment on such a severe injury!

Left and right tibia of my favourite lady. The left tibia shows the extent of the compound fracture. Note that the bones have fully fused together but are still very wonky!

By looking at the fracture of her leg we can tell that this wasn’t the cause of death as the bones had enough time to fuse back together (albeit very wonky!) She went on to develop osteoarthritis due to the fact that her left leg was shorter than her right, causing her to hobble. Osteoarthritis is evident on bones as they take on a polished effect on the joint surface where two bones are rubbing together.

Left: A talus showing no signs of osteoarthiritis. Right: The talus of my favourite lady, showing polished bone

The image above shows a comparison between the left talus of an individual who shows no signs of osteoarthritis (left) compared to the left talus of my favourite lady (right). The joint surfaces on my favourite lady’s talus have taken on the polished effect which is common in osteoarthritis.

This is just scratching the surface of all the interesting things we can learn from my favourite lady. Next week’s blog will be looking at the results from multiple specialist studies conducted on her remains!

Dulcie Newbury

Collections Intern.

Way Back Wednesday: the Science of Skeletons

As well as organising the Science Week events at the Roman Baths, I was able to design a handling table. My topic of choice was human remains, as I have an interest in them and there is a lot they can tell you. One issue with this is the ethics of choosing to have human remains in public areas of the site as visitors may not wish to see human remains outside a case. This was overcome by producing a sign to warn visitors about the remains on show and to only have skeletal elements not whole skeletons out.

My research for the table was into how you could age and sex a skeleton from different elements. It was hard to condense the information down into language that the everyday reader would understand as there are lots of technical words such as diaphysis and epiphysis for the shaft and ends of long bones respectively.  This could have be why information sheets explaining how to do this have not been produced before.

Skull of a Roman Male

One common comment made about the table was about the condition of the teeth.  Teeth are the most common skeletal element found as they are resistant to chemical and physical destruction. The teeth which attracted the most attention belonged to a 25 year old Roman male, and the condition divided opinion. Some said they were well looked after and in better condition than the modern equivalent, while others said they were worn. The teeth could be in better condition due to the fact the Romans didn’t consume as much sugar as the modern population, as sugar wasn't available in Europe at this time. Instead, they were worn due to milling methods used to make flour leaving sand which in turn wore down the teeth.

The assessment of skeletal remains is very subjective, as this comment on the teeth wear shows, so even if you know the correct methods you might still be wrong, and if sexing you only have a 50/50 chance of getting it right!

Katharine Foxton

Bradford University Placement Student

Roman Architecture

For my part of British Science Week, I was given the task of designing a display revolving around the topic of my choice, Architecture. Rather than focusing on arches specifically, I decided to broaden the information and open it up to many different aspects of architecture.  

As I am particularly interested in the topic, I learnt that focusing on the science side of architecture more difficult that I had first thought. I found that I had to first wrap my head around how the Romans actually managed to get their constructions to stand, and then concentrate on simplifying and limiting what I had gathered. The aqueducts were fascinating to research, as the Romans had a considerable grasp of how they worked and how to create the perfect speed of flow, ensuring even the smallest of towns received water! One of the most difficult things to grasp was the materials used by the Romans, as this was particularly scientific involving the Calcination of Lime creating Mortar, which was then used in essentially all of their constructions.

 

A Successful Architect

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On the day, I had a number of visitors who were particularly interested in the materials used, and were fascinated by how light and porous some of the materials actually were (i.e. the Tufa block). As my table was located beside the Great Bath, I was able to point out where they could find these materials, which are hidden unless you’re looking for it!

The small collection of columns which showed the differences between the column orders was a particular interest to many, as the intricate details on the columns astounded many people. I was able to have a small piece of a column on display too, showing the details and thickness of the columns that were used by the Romans. It was especially impressive how much of the columns capital remained prominent, specifically for how heavy the item was and how damaged the bottom part of the piece actually is.

As it is not common practice to touch items on display, many people were hesitant to touch the materials I had out, and were even hesitant to touch the arch activity. After watching other visitors try, more people (not just children) began approaching the table and were particularly interested in trying their hand at being a mini architect!

Lucy Pidgeon, Bath Spa University 

Roman Baths investigates science

As part of British Science Week, the Roman Baths organised a number of events to allow visitors to find out about the science behind some of our museum objects, for which I was project manager. The week started with Science Busking which consisted of three tables explaining the science behind pottery, such as how the pot was fired; metals, what metals the Romans made and worked and bone, showing how you can sex and age a skeleton. These tables mainly were visited by adults however some children also visited the tables. The arch model was also set up and this attracted the attention with visitors of all ages. Over the three hour period this event ran it attracted 547 visitors. The BRSLI Science Cadets also had a variety of geology based activities in the education room to find out about Bath’s hot spring. 

 Our successful Science Busking event

Throughout the week hands-on tables ran next to Great Bath to allow visitors to handle some of the museum objects. These ranged from human remains, coins, mosaics and Roman architecture. A volunteer or placement student compiled the information and stood with their table to answer any questions the visitors may have had. The tables all attracted interest from visitors with numbers ranging from 90 to 220 visitors wanting to find out more. The most popular day was Thursday, with over 200 people wanting to find out about mosaics and to look and touch a real skeleton.

The final two events were Bath Taps in Science organised by the University of Bath. The penultimate event was held at the University and was to encourage children to be interested in science, the Roman Baths took the table top arch and some x-rays and objects. The children enjoyed building the arch and couldn’t quite understand how it stood up without anything supporting it. 

The final event was held at Royal Victoria Park, where the Roman Baths set up the aqueduct and arch model. Both proved extremely popular with 370 people engaging either on one or both of the activities. 

Overall, Science Week proved a success with all the events catering to all age groups and engaging both children and families.

Katharine Foxton 

Bradford University Placement Student

Science Week Success

The Roman Baths were part of British Science Week again this year by hosting and participating in several events during the week, the first of which was Science Busking. This involved having five tables of information regarding the science behind different aspects of Roman life and buildings such as; where the thermal water came from, how hypocausts heated rooms, coin manufacture, health and bones. This garnered the attention of around 55 visitors throughout the three hour event. A model aqueduct and water organ attracted more children and families who, with the help of volunteers from the Explorium and staff members learned about how they worked.

Throughout the week a table set up on site was used to inform visitors of the science behind a variety of objects and engineering feats found in the Roman world. These tables ranged from information about skeletons, coins, aqueducts, hypocausts and glass with objects being available for the public to hold and discuss with a volunteer. Each day held interest for the visitors with between 40 and 70 people taking in or questioning the material available. However, Wednesday was the most popular day with over a hundred playing with and learning about the aqueduct.

My handling table on the science of glass

The last event was Bath Taps into Science at Victoria Park, to which the Roman Baths took an aqueduct and arch model. These proved to be very popular with the children, who enjoyed learning about how and why the engineering feats worked whilst playing with them themselves. The constant stream of families meant there was no way of verifying the numbers of visitors, though all seemed to enjoy it. All in all, Science Week appeared to be a success as a popular event for children, families and the general public alike.

Kirsty Luckcuck
Bradford University intern

Science Week 2014: Amazing Arches!

Roman arches don’t seem like they should be particularly scientific. Stacking blocks into an arch isn’t something that most people think of as “Roman science”. In truth, building Roman arches required some serious physics!

               

The first thing to know about Roman arch science is that the Romans built two different of arches; voussoir and corbel. Voussoir arches are made up of lots of individual blocks of stone, the voussoirs, specifically shaped to be widest at the top. These are arranged into a semicircle, with some sort of solid support at either end, to make the well-known “Roman arch” shape seen in many places around the Baths. 

A voussior arch.

 A corbel arch is much simpler; it’s just two pieces of stone, one resting on the other, positioned into a triangular arch. 

A corbel arch.

But how did arches work, and why were they important to the Romans? The reasons are to do with how the blocks interact with each other, and how that made them important architectural supports. In a voussoir arch, each voussoir shares force with its neighbours. If force is put on the arch, each voussoir leans into the next voussoir down the arch. Therefore, each voussoir is supporting its neighbour on one side, and being supported by its neighbour on the other. This means that as long as the voussoirs are mortared to prevent them falling out of the arch and there is support independent of the arch at each end, the arch will hold much more weight than its size would suggest.   

The physics of a voussoir arch.

In a corbel arch, the force is also divided, but a corbel arch holds because it is not divided equally. The supporting piece takes most of the force, preventing the part that makes the actual arch from being overburdened. Therefore, as long as the supporting part is strong enough, the arch holds. 

The physics of a corbel arch.

However, the more force you want on a corbel arch, the larger a supporting part you need, and the taller the arch is. This makes it more space-efficient to use voussoir arches, and as a result they are more common in Roman architecture.

All of this shows that Roman arches were very scientific constructions, despite appearing very simple!