Roman Jewellery

Roman women were extremely over the top with their jewellery; so much so that a law was passed limiting the amount of gold one person could wear, as it was deemed ‘tacky’!

Earring

Compared to the Mayan civilisation for example, the Romans were not the flashiest of societies, preferring pearls to diamonds for their natural colouring – colour was a key element in Roman fashions, not how shiny or elaborate something was. Gem stones were often left in their natural state and were not polished or cut to catch the light.

Rings and bracelets were integral parts of accessorising in the Roman Empire; as well as wearing them as we do today, bracelets were pushed up to the upper arm and rings worn on the lower finger joint – hence their tiny sizes.

Small twisted finger ring

If a man was seen wearing any other form of jewellery that was not a signet ring, he would have been considered effeminate. The rings were used to determine the wearer’s status, position and as a means of sealing letters or identifying personal objects. The gemstone on the top was carved with the owner’s personal emblem, but often cheaper copies were made out of glass displaying cruder images of goddesses or emporers. Another type of ring that is frequently found is that of the betrothal band; these were placed on the ring finger (modern wedding ring finger) as Romans believed that this was directly connected to the heart via the nervous system.

Necklaces were most commonly worn short, similarly to modern day chokers, sitting just below the neckline. Materials varied from glass beads, metals and precious stones. One of the most common variations of necklace was the torc, believed to have originated from the Celtic inhabitants of Britain and Gaul as the symbol of the warrior. The Romans wore these to represent their status, and they were most commonly made from gold, although other materials, such as copper-alloy, were also used.

Contrary to popular belief, brooches were not primarily decorative items; they were mainly functional, working to hold Romans’ clothes together. There are many designs when it comes to brooches, from simple fibulas to more elaborate disc shaped ones. These variations suggest the status or wealth of the owner and let us know that everybody in society was wearing them.

Brooches from the Sacred Spring

Hair pins, as brooches, were practical items that held up a lady’s elaborate hair style, but they also added grandeur to her look. The longer pins were worn in larger, more complicated styles, whereas the shorter pins would have been used for simpler, lighter dos. Many were extremely detailed with carved goddesses and scenes at the tops, jewels were inlayed and the pins themselves made from silver or ivory. More commonly, the pin would have been made from wood or bone.

To have a look at some of the amazing, more elaborate pieces check out this website: http://www.allaboutgemstones.com/jewelry_history_ancient_roman.html

Fi

Roman Tableware

The evening of the last Tuesday of August was a clear, calm one, a lovely atmosphere to set up the last Time Table of the summer season around the Great Bath. The topic I had chosen to explore was Roman tableware as it was something all Romans would have used and like many objects would have been an indication of a person’s power, wealth and status.

For the most grand of dining tables gold and silver vessels and platters would have been the material of choice but would these objects have been eaten off? Perhaps exquisitely decorated pieces of metal such as the Mildenhall Treasure were placed on display in Roman dining rooms to be admired. Bronze was also used to make tableware and metals were used to make spoons. Spoons were the main cutlery used by the Romans as they did not have forks and mainly ate with their fingers.



Pewter Ewer from the Sacred Spring

I was fascinated to learn of the popularity of pewter tableware as I had not associated the material with the Romans. However it was popular as it was cheaper than silver and not as breakable as pottery. A number of pewter objects have been found in the Sacred Spring presumably ending their lives as religious offerings. If you joined me at my Time Table I hope you enjoyed making a mini Pewter platter to take home.

Glass still appeals to us today as it did in Roman times. The Romans however seem to have been a lot more adventurous with the colour of their glass using yellow-browns, greens, dark blues and orange-red.

Samian Bowl

Before the Romans came to Britain very few people had fine pottery. That all changed though and soon the Romans were importing loads of pottery such as red samian ware from Gaul and British potteries were trying to copy Roman styles.

Next time you are looking in a museum case at pewter jugs, glass bottles or samian pottery have a think about their original setting. Try to visualise the dining room decorated with wall paintings and mosaics, think of the smells of hot food and wine and listen for the sound of conversation, laughter and music.



Emma Traherne – Volunteer at the Roman Baths and Assistant Curator at the Museum of Farnham (Surrey)



For more information on the Sacred Spring and the Pewter Finds

http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/collections.aspx



For more information on the Mildenhall Treasure

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/m/the_mildenhall_treasure.aspx

Creating a Tuesday Times Table

My fellow interns and I were set the task of creating a themed table for the Roman Baths’ Tuesday Times Tables. We were given free range on everything from choosing the theme, picking out objects for handling and designing the information leaflets and posters.

I was first to pioneer the Times Tables and chose the theme of Roman jewellery.

Sophia at her Tuesday Timetable

Behinds the scenes, I spent a lot of my time researching pretty much everything I could find that related to Roman jewellery, and preparing myself for tricky questions that would be asked by the public. Books such as Roman Clothing and Fashion by A. T. Croom really gave me an idea of what to include on my table.

Fortunately our Learning Officer, Lindsey, who is in charge of all the educational events that take place at the Baths, already had a box of handling items that were perfect for my table – this saved me a lot of time looking through the archives for complete objects that would have been safe to be touched by the public. The box contained an original and a replica brooch, a replica chatelaine (toilet) set, original bracelets and rings, and a model necklace. One of the rings included was a signet ring with its gem stone missing (signet rings would have had a carved gemstone on the top to show the owner’s seal and status). In order to show what the gem would have looked like, I created some colouring sheets with a variety of engravings on, that children - or adults! - could take away with them. There were also photos of original gems and other pieces of jewellery.

When the table was set up, I was visited by numerous members of the public who were fascinated by the size of the rings – tiny! – or the detail on the bracelets.
Fi

A Question of Soles

For my Tuesday Time Table, I explored Roman civilian shoes. I studied a collection of leather soles found on Walcot Street and used modern replicas to show usage and construction.

Finding well-preserved organic material, such as leather, is great because it often doesn’t survive, due to various geological factors, such as acidic soil. In the case of the Walcot Street pit, a clay layer allowed the leather to stay damp and preserved.

I have been looking at two main types of shoe: The ‘Carbatina’ and the ‘Calceus’. Both types of shoe would have been worn as outdoor shoes, covering most of the foot. The soles show evidence of hobnailing - providing protection for the soles against the damp ground.

The stereotypical image of a Roman wearing sandals and a toga is not a Romano-British one - would you wear sandals in the middle of a British winter?! In Rome, flip-flop like ‘Solea’ were worn as house shoes, although in Rome it was deemed uncivilised to wear sandals with a toga.

The collection of shoe pieces found at Walcot Street also contains evidence of Roman ‘Soccus’, a slipper-type shoe. It is also likely that Romano-British wore socks under their Calcei to keep their feet warm.

A Man wearing Soccus

It is believed that Walcot Street pit was situated near a cobbler’s shop and this would explain the large quantity of shoe soles and leather offcuts.

Hobnailed sole

Mystery Sole: This collection of soles lacks the evidence for house shoes, as most of the soles are hobnailed. This poses an important question: did the Romano-British buck the trend and go barefoot in the home?

I believe it more likely that they wore Soccus or cloth socks instead of Solea, which wouldn’t have kept the feet warm. The fragile nature of these cloth shoes would mean that they were less likely to have been preserved in the pit.



Make your own Carbitina!


Georgina - Roman Baths Volunteer

Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Bath

Black and white photograph. Sir Mortimer Wheeler giving opening address at 1958 Bath Festival in Abbey Churchyard. Council dignitaries including Mayor of Bath on platform behind speaker. (Televised event) - image from Roman Baths Collection.

 The 1958 Bath Festival included a televised opening ceremony, in Abbey Churchyard, carried out by Sir Mortimer Wheeler (1890-1976), the eminent archaeologist.

His speech included the statement that Bath could become ‘a mere archaeological specimen’. He then went on to say:

‘I am going to be quite frank with you about this. If there’s one thing I dislike more than another, it is archaeology. The moment you think of a place as mere archaeology, you may be sure that the place is dead. But Bath, you’ll agree with me, is not dead. It is a Roman city; it is a Georgian city; but Bath is also a modern city.’

Bullamore 1999, pp.53

Sir Mortimer Wheeler is often viewed as being one of the first ‘modern archaeologists’. One of the reasons for this is his encouraging the use of volunteer diggers rather than cheap labour. Previously, many amateur excavations were funded by inviting contributions from wealthy investors, who would then get a share of any proceeds if anything of value was found. Another reason is his development of the ‘Box grid system’.

The site is divided into squares which are then dug leaving just a dividing wall, similar to an ice cube tray. By using this method the site could be dug, but with layers of earth still preserved, so it is still possible to see how a site has changed over the years.

His career began as in 1919 as Director of Archaeology at the National Museum of Wales, then becoming Keeper of Archaeology at the Museum of London in 1926. He undertook a five year excavation at Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, Dorset. He also worked in India as Director General Archaeological Survey of India and establishing the Archaeological Department of Pakistan and the National Museum of Pakistan.

Sir Mortimer Wheeler

He died in 1976.
Bullamore, T. 1999 Fifty Festival – The History of the Bath Festival. Mushroom Publishing: Finland

Sweet Cheese Cake but not as we know it....

You will need:

130 grams plain flour

250 grams ricotta cheese

1 egg

4 bay leaves

4 tablespoons of clear honey

Serves 4

Libum to be made as follows: 2 lb cheese well crushed in a mortar; when it is well crushed, add 1lb bread-wheat flour or, if you want it to be lighter, just half a pound, to be mixed well with the cheese. Add one egg and mix all together well. Make a loaf of this with leaves under it, and cook slowly in a hot fire under a brick

Cato on Agriculture 75

Cheese was generally salty in Roman times and while the recipe above does not state it, other sources for libum contain honey. The combination of a salty cheese and a honey finish would not go down too well; as such, a soft-cheese substitute has been chosen to make a ‘sweet’ cheese cake based on the recipe above.

Instructions

• Sift the flour into a bowl. Beat the cheese until smooth.

• Combine the flour, cheese and egg into a soft dough. It will be quite sticky.

• Split the dough into 4 and place on a grease-proof papered baking tray with a bay leaf pressed to the underside of each ball.

• Place them in the oven for 30 minutes, oven setting 220 degrees Celsius, until golden brown on top.

• Score and pour warmed honey over them.

• Leave to cool for 10 minutes and serve.

Recipe formed part of Bel's Tuesday Timetable event - What did they eat?

A Matter of Mosaics

Working as an intern for a month at the Roman Baths, I was asked to put together a handling table for the Times Table event at the museum on Tuesday evenings. My mind immediately jumped to mosaics and I thought I’d share the information on the blog.

Mosaics are one of the first things that captured my imagination about the ancient world. I remember going to Fishbourne Roman Palace near Chichester when I was younger, where some of the best mosaics in the country are preserved. The Cupid on a Dolphin mosaic is perhaps one of the best known, and best preserved, mosaics from the site.

Cupid on a Dolphin

Not far from Fishbourne is Bignor Roman Villa, also containing some incredibly well- preserved mosaics. If you’re interested in such art work, I would definitely recommend a visit.

The technique of making mosaics was developed by the Greeks, around 400BC. They used small black and white pebbles to create mythological or other pictorial scenes. Soon, they started to use small pieces of marble, glass, pottery and stone, known as tesserae.

This technique was adopted by the Romans and spread with the empire. Local people would be trained in workshops, examples of which have been identified in London and Colchester. It is believed that there was a ‘handbook’ of common motifs used by artists, which would have presumably been cheaper than getting a unique design done, although no copies of such a book have been found.

Mosaics are often associated with bathing in Roman buildings and certainly many mosaics are found on the surface of the hypocaust heating systems. Unfortunately for us, this means they often collapse in on themselves – as has happened here at the East Baths.

East Bath Mosaic

The colours for the individual tesserae were found naturally in the raw materials selected for the mosaics. Glass was rarely used in Roman Britain but does feature in mosaics elsewhere in the empire.

For me, no discussion of mosaics would be complete without mention of my favourite - the Alexander mosaic. Dating from c. 100BC, it is from the House of the Faun, in Pompeii, the largest house uncovered in the town. The presence of this mosaic, as well as others throughout the house, indicates some very wealthy owners indeed…..

Alexander Mosaic

Measuring 5.82 x 3.13m, around 1.5 million tesserae were used. That is a lot of stone, and a very talented artist! The mosaic depicts the Battle of Issus (333 BC), between Alexander the Great and Darius, the Persian king. The one currently in Pompeii is a reconstruction, as the original has been moved to the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.

Next time you’re looking at a mosaic, have a think about both the artist and whoever commissioned it – can you get a sense of how wealthy they were? What does the mosaic tell us about the building and its owner?

Have a look at this website for some excellent images and a brief description of some lovely examples: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/mosaics_gallery.shtml

For more information on Fishbourne: http://www.sussexpast.co.uk/property/site.php?site_id=11

For more information on Bignor: http://bignorromanvilla.co.uk/

Light Bite

Honey Omelette

You will need:

4 eggs

½ cup of milk

4 Tablespoons of butter or oil

2 Tablespoons of liquid honey

Cinnamon or Nutmeg

Take the eggs, milk, and butter and combine. With butter, grease a shallow pan or skillet and then heat. When the melted butter begins to bubble, pour in the eggs and cook the omelette. Do not fold. Serve with honey poured on top and a sprinkling of cinnamon or nutmeg.


Courtesy of Apicius. Book VII –The Gourmet.

A Few Great Men - Statues on the Terrace

Many visitors to the Baths believe the statues around the terrace to be Roman; they are, in fact, just over one hundred years old. Julius Caesar is even more modern - one morning in the 1980s, he was found languishing at the bottom of the Great Bath after being given a helping push by some drunken youths!

All of the statues are male except for the bust of Roma and many of these men are instantly recognizable from the annals of Roman history. The governors of Britain are less recognizable names and yet played a far more important role than any Emperor in conquering Britain.

Suetonius Paulinus

One governor who deserves better recognition is Suetonius Paulinus (governor: 58-61 AD), famous for his role in subduing the Boudiccan rebellion. Before he came to Britain, he had made his name leading an expedition across the Atlas Mountains, becoming one of the first Europeans to experience the harshness of the Sahara Desert. His undertakings are recorded by Pliny the Elder in Naturalis Historia.

Julius Agricola

Another great man, Julius Agricola (governor 77-87 AD), stands proudly on the terrace. He subdued a large part of Britain including Wales, northern England and even parts of Scotland. He helped establish control of the area that today is referred to as Roman Britain. His exploits are recorded by Tacitus in De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae.

Ostorius Scapula (governor 47-52 AD) had a huge impact on both the military and the economy of Britain, but Scapula is most famous for capturing Caratacus. Caratacus was the most powerful British warlord before the Roman invasion and he continued to be a thorn in Roman sides for a long time after, until he was captured and sent to Rome by Scapula.

Ostorius Scapula

The city of Bath (or Aquae Sulis as it was during the Roman period) is surrounded by the Mendip Hills. These hills are rich in lead and this was first exploited under Scapula’s leadership. Lead became one of Britain’s biggest exports - it even turns up in places like Pompeii!!

These men are great characters from history and have had a huge impact upon the British nation. Their role in history should not be forgotten or ignored merely because they never rose to the same dizzy heights as the Emperors.

Heath Meltdown

Qui Dignes Es!

Hair in Roman times, as it is today, was a woman’s crowning glory. With it, a lady could promote her social status, her identity and even her sexual availability.

Along with jewellery, hair was a woman’s way of expressing herself; from simple straight locks to elaborately shaped wigs and hair pieces, Roman vogue was heavily varied.

One of the most common techniques women, or their slaves, would have used to fashion the complicated styles was that of plaiting, or braiding. The plaits were often wrapped around or across the head to create textured and complex looks. (Have a look at our attempt….).

Along with the use of plaits, curling irons were frequently applied to hair to make voluptuous piles and layers, screaming wealth and status. The irons were also used to crimp the hair in order to bulk out certain parts of the design or add texture.

To hold stray hairs in place, animal fat was used much like a modern hair gel or spray. It must have been a nightmare to wash out!

As complicated as the styles sound already, the Romans took the next step up by attaching hair pieces and/or wigs to bulk up their already colossal dos; many of the styles depended on this. False hair (that is, not belonging to the wearer) was used as extra padding to heighten or bulk out styles.

'So important is the business of beautification; so numerous are the tiers and storeys piled one upon another on her head! In front you would take her for an Andromanche; she is so tall behind; you would not think it was the same person.'

- Satire 6, 501-504, trans. P. Green

Some conservative opinions suggest that the use of such wigs and adornments were worn as disguises to hide a woman’s identity. Others believe that the shaped hair styles represented the beholders social standing, such as with styles moulded to show regal headdresses, or the woman’s faith through hair resembling turbans, crests or crowns.

Bel and I (who are currently volunteers here at the Baths, from Durham University) had a go, much to our amusement, at creating some of the designs on each other. We concluded that the Romans definitely had the upper hand in hairdressing.

Fi – Collections placement
Qui dignes es translates to “Because you’re worthy!”

The Museum - A Brief History

The museum opened in 1897, following the discovery and excavation of the Roman bathing complex during the 1870s. In its infancy, the museum was more of an informal cabinet of Roman curiosities than a museum, with various pieces of stone from the excavations set up around the baths. The baths became a huge tourist attraction, charges were made for admission and guides gave tours of the site.


Great Bath 1885

 Visitor numbers steadily grew over the years and the collection was added to by further excavations and gifted objects from other institutions and individuals. By the early 1980s, the site was attracting over 1 million visitors a year, although this has since levelled off to a constant 900,000 + a year.

Excavation of the Temple Courtyard 1981-1983

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the museum was formalised and its management remodelled as part of Bath and North East Somerset Council’s Heritage Services. For the first time, The Roman Baths Museum was curatorially led. In 1990, the museum became a registered museum and in 1999 the collection was designated by Resource (Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries) as having a collection of national significance. In 2004, registration became accreditation, serving to ensure that The Roman Baths Museum provides:

• opportunities to use, enjoy and learn from the collections
• an assurance that the collections, including donated items, are held in trust for society
• information about the museum, its collections and its services
• a commitment to consultation with users, to ensure that future developments and changes take account of their needs and interests
• appropriate visitor facilities or details about facilities nearby

There are five on-site stores housing stone, ceramic building material, mortars, bulk archaeological material and sensitive items, and there is one off-site store, housing our larger social history items.

• The oldest object in our collection is a Mammoth’s tooth (150,000yrs old)
• To date, the newest object within the collection is a site archive for High Street, Batheaston dated 2010
• The lastest objects to be catalogued are a collection of tile and mortar, collected during cleaning of the laconicum area on site, prior to archaeological survey in 2011
• The first catalogued object in the collection was found in 1727, in a drain along Stall Street and is the bronze head of Minerva
• The last aquision through the Treasure Act (1996) was in 2010 and comprised of 16 medieval coins from the Wellow area.

Stephen Clews, Roman Baths and Pump Room Manager, with the head of Minerva

Today, there are two members of staff dedicated to caring for, interpreting (including outreach) and catalouging the collection. There are two senior members of staff involved in its care and interpretation and one Learning and Programmes coordinator, resposible for creating teaching sessions and who is heavily involved in collection outreach events. The visitor services team are responsible for giving hourly guided tours of the Great Bath, school teaching sessions and are the first point of contact for many face-to-face visitor enquiries.


Temple Pediment Projected 2010


The museum has recently benifited from a 5 year redevelopment, which has included many new museum displays and an upgrade to visitor areas and there is more to come in the next 5 year phase…. We are still collecting and we are the English Heritage recommended repository for all archaeological archives in Bath and North East Somerset. If you are interested in learning more about the history of the site and/or the collection, why not come along on one of our Tunnel or Store Tours (info page link below)


http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/whats_on/events/events_calendar/tunnel_tours_and_store_tours.aspx

Helen Harman - Collection Assistant

Light Bite

Vegetable and Lentil Soup

You will need:

1 cup of chick peas

1 cup of lentils

1 cup of green peas

½ cup of barley (pre-soaked)

10 cups of water

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 heads of leeks finely chopped

½ teaspoon of coriander

A pinch of aniseed

A pinch of fennel

½ beets, diced

4 grape (or mallow) leaves, chopped

½ cup of cabbage leave, chopped

½ teaspoon of oregano

Another pinch of fennel

A pinch of celery seed (or lovage)

½ teaspoon of honey

¼ cup of cabbage leaves, chopped

Soak barley for 24 hours in water, then rinse. Into a pot, put chick-peas, lentils, and peas. Add drained barley to the legumes, together with water and olive oil. To this, add heads of leeks, coriander, aniseed, fennel, beets, grape (or mallow) leaves, and cabbage leaves. Cook gently over a low heat for at least 3 hours. One half hour before the soup is cooked, grind together oregano, fennel and celery seed (or lovage), and add to the soup. Stir. Simmer ½ hour and serve with a garnish of chopped raw cabbage leaves.



Courtesy of Apicius. Book IV – All kinds of dishes.

As translated by John Edwards 1984

A Crisis in Store?

It was a beautiful sunny Friday in York and over 100 people had gathered for the Federation of Archaeological Managers & Employers (FAME) forum, entitled ‘Trouble in Store: Facing up to the Archaeological Archives Crisis’. The forum had been organised in association with The Society of Museum Archaeologists (SMA).

The location of the event was the splendid and historic 17th Century Merchant Taylor’s Hall.

Merchant Taylors Hall

The first speaker of the day was Roland Smith – Regional Manager for Cotswold Archaeology. He introduced the topic and went into the reasons the forum had been convened. The primary reason being the lack of storage for many archaeological archives, based on a number of varying factors, but the predominant one being storage space. Both archaeological units and museum stores are being overwhelmed by the backlog in number and cost incurred in the up keep/storage of archaeological archives.

The next two speakers, Catherine Hardman – Archaeological Data Service (ADS) and Stuart Campbell – Treasure Trove, brought the issue of digital archiving and the situation in Scotland to the table. David Allen – Keeper of Archaeology for Hampshire County Museums and Chair of the SMA was next up with a history of the problem and how the issues are not new to the archaeological world.

The first speaker after the lunch break was Quinton Carroll – Historic Environment Team Manager for Cambridgeshire County Council and Chair of the Archaeological Archives Forum. He talked about the success of the Archaeological Resource Centre in Cambridgeshire and the role that the Historic Environment Resource (HER) has to play in the management of archaeological archives. He introduced interesting legalities surrounding the planning process that might be used to safeguard the post-excavation process and deposition condition.

Duncan Brown – Head of Archaeological Archives for English Heritage, rounded up the day’s discussions by focusing on the next step forward. He summarised a lot of what had gone before, such as the need to gather qualitative data. He talked about English Heritage’s archaeological regional stores map and the plan to update it and the potential of future projects to evaluate the situation. He was clear in his message that we need to unite and begin to work towards a strategy to combat an infinite problem.

A personal perspective:
Working in a museum, as a museum archaeologist, I see a clear need for evaluation of the current process from pre-planning to post deposition. I would like to see regional working parties created to collect the data needed to start making the case for change and investment based on qualitative data and to raise general awareness of the issues involved. I really hope that this is the beginning of change to the way archaeological material is obtained, researched, displayed and stored, and that we can unite as disciplines to ensure the best provision, access and information is achieved. What are your thoughts?

For more information on the venue:

http://www.merchant-taylors-york.org/the_hall/  

For background and relevant organisations:

http://www.famearchaeology.co.uk/2011/06/fame-forum-2011-speaker-summaries/ http://www.socmusarch.org.uk/
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/archives/
http://www.archaeologists.net/
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

For relevant accompanying information:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/1514132.pdf
http://www.helm.org.uk/server/show/nav.19772


Helen Harman – Collections Assistant

ACCES to Egypt

If I were to ask you what sort of items we have in our collection here, I reckon the first thing you would mention would be Roman things. What else would the Roman Baths Museum have? Well our collection spans a much bigger time period than that. It actually runs right up to the present day! I’m also pretty certain you wouldn’t guess that we have a small collection of Egyptian artefacts.

Winged Scarab

Yeah, it came as quite a surprise to me, too! So how did I come to discover this little collection? Did I just open a random box, look inside and find it in a rather Indiana Jones like fashion? Not so much…

Shabti

You see I was helping respond to an enquiry from the Association of Curators for Collections from Egypt and Sudan (ACCES). ACCES have recently re-vamped their website and, as part of this, have created a Facebook page which features a gallery of highlights from museum collections. This gallery includes images and captions from museum collections.

Limestone Shabti

And, since the Baths works very hard to raise the profile of all of our collection, naturally we took part in this. So James took the photographs while I researched and wrote the captions. Not the most exciting way to discover something, I’ll admit, but still enjoyable!

I suppose you are wondering how the Roman Baths Museum came to own a collection of Egyptian artefacts? Well, artefacts from Egypt have always been popular with private collectors and a long time ago this collection was donated to the Victoria Art Gallery, who, in 1982, transferred the collection to the Baths.

In general, I’m not that interested in Egyptian archaeology, but I still find this collection to be rather exciting. Of the five artefacts we have highlighted from our collection, my favourite is a model of a winged scarab. It is most likely to be an amulet (scarabs were popular motifs for amulets) and I find it adorable! While it may be very simply constructed (just three pieces, tied together with string), and has no glitzy gold or gems, I love it. I think it’s quite sweet really.

Are you interested in seeing what other pieces we have highlighted? Then why don’t you check out the ACCES Facebook page?

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/media/set/?set=a.204898112888207.55841.123557411022278

Charlotte

It’s not all rotting fish...

The first thing most people think of when you mention Roman food is garum also known as fish sauce. Famously made from rotting fish entrails, the idea puts many people off Roman food. However there is a lot more too Roman food than fish sauce, plenty of Roman dishes don’t actually contain any.

For example, honey cake.

Fresh from the oven

Now in my official position as Office Cake Baker and in honour of the Roman Festival of Bakers, I decided to recreate this recipe.

Ingredients

200g/7oz clear honey

3 eggs

50g/2oz plain white flour

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (350 F)/gas mark 3. Prepare a baking pan either by oiling it with vegetable oil (olive if you want to be really Roman!) or lining with baking parchment

2. Beat the eggs, and then slowly add the honey. Beat until all the honey is mixed in and the surface of the mix is covered in tiny bubbles

3. Sift the flour and carefully fold it into the mixture

4. Pour into the baking pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean.

Serve warm and drizzled with more honey or enjoy it cold. Either way it’s absolutely delicious!!!

This lovely cake will probably feature in any picnic baskets I prepare this summer, and I do hope you enjoy it too!

Charlotte

Stanton Drew – The Secret of the Stones

Stanton Drew Main Stone Circle

In 2009, as part of the Festival of British Archaeology events, we went out into the parish of Stanton Drew. Here lies a little known set of stone circles that date to 2000-3000 BC. What’s most interesting about this site is that, unlike Avebury and Stonehenge, it has never been excavated. In 1997, a geophysical survey of the stone circles turned up some impressive results – wooden post holes were found indicating that there would have once been a series of wooden circles on the site.

In 2009, Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society, under the careful guidance of Richard Sermon (County Archaeologist for BANES), carried out a geophysical survey of the cove. The cove is a name given to three stones outlying the stone circles – the findings indicated that these three stones were once part of a long barrow, a place where the ancient people used to bury their dead.


Members of Bath and Camerton at The Cove

 We set up displays in the local village hall; we had a story teller, handling objects and coil pot making activities. The WVS were on hand to serve tea and cake (some of the best I have ever tasted). There was a flint knapper making prehistoric flint tools in the ‘Druids Arms’ garden (alongside the cove) and a self guided walk that allowed everyone to enjoy the archaeology.

Flint Knapper in Action

A big thank you must go to all those who got involved - the villagers, teachers, school children, local farmers and landowners, Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society and the other interest groups who came on the day to share some of thieirwork. It truly was a magical day in a very special setting.

Coil Pot Making

In 2010, we explored the Medieval in Englishcombe (see Katrina’s previous blog for more details!) and this year for the Festival of British Archaeology we are back in the prehistoric, but this time we want to share with you the ‘Secrets of the Downs’. We will be at the University of Bath Arts Barn on Saturday 30th July 2011. So if, like me, you are really into your archaeology or maybe you just want a fantastic free day out with the family – why not come along…..


For more details on the event this year please follow the link below

http://www.romanbaths.co.uk/whats_on/events1.aspx


For the full and in-depth report on the geophysical survey findings please go to

http://www.stantondrewchurch.org/stones/bacasreport.pdf

Helen Harman - Collections Assistant

Feathered Friends

Sometimes you need to escape work for a few minutes and get some fresh air. Usually, I just walk onto the Terrace, but sometimes I go and sit by the Great Bath. Normally, all you see are visitors enjoying their trip to the Baths, and maybe the odd pigeon. So imagine my surprise when a bird of a more aquatic nature landed on the water in front of me!

Can you guess what had come to visit?

Yep, ducks.

To me this is extremely awesome, why? Because ducks are cool.

The first time I saw them, the female one then proceeded to preen herself in the Great Bath. I found that extremely amusing. I actually ended up sat next to the Bath for ten minutes watching her. There is something very cool about a duck having a bath in the roman bath, and it’s nice to see the thermal waters being appreciated again!

I have since been informed that these two ducks visit the Baths every summer. They have also attempted to nest around the bath but have not yet been successful in that area. It would be amazing if they did though - can you imagine how cute ducklings would look on the Great Bath?

Personally I think these two have got the right idea, why swim on the cold River Avon when you can swim in the warm waters of the Great Bath?

The ducks can usually be spotted sitting on the stone in the picture, or swimming on the Bath. They aren’t here all the time though, so keep your eyes peeled for them!



Charlotte

Six of the Best

Following on from ‘The Curses Condensed’, here is an up-close and personal look at six of the curses from the collection. The main text source and all of the transcriptions and line drawings have come from Roger Tomlin’s work on the curses in Cunliffe, B. (ed.), 1988, The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath Volume II : The Finds from the Sacred Spring, Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monograph No 16

1. Celtic curse - BATRM1983.13.b.118

List of names

Celtic text written down in Latin letters

It is likely that British was only a spoken language and therefore in writing, people would have used Latin letters, i.e. an attempt to write British sounds in Latin letters.



2. Theft of a woman’s cape – BATRM1983.13.b.27

‘Lovernisca [gives] him who, whether [man] or woman, whether boy or girl, has stolen (her) cape.’

Written from right to left in mirror-image cursive, the letters are unevenly spaced and sometimes distorted.

Did you know ?

Lovernisca is a female ‘Celtic’ name that means vixen.



3. Theft of a bathing tunic – BATRM1983.13.b.157

‘To the goddess Sulis. If anyone has stolen the bathing tunic of Cantissena, whether slave or free,…’

This curse relates to the theft of a bathing tunic, sneaky thieves or did someone just forget to pack their swimming costume?


4. ABC…… - BATRM1983.13.b.110

‘A B C D E F X’

Part of the alphabet, A-F. Was the X added at the end for magical significance?

Did you know ?

Alphabets and part-alphabets were commonly found as graffiti?



5. Theft of VILBIA – BATRM1983.14.b.1

‘May he who has stolen VILBIA from me become as liquid as water. who has stolen it [or her]. Velvinna, Exsupereus, Verianus, Severinus, A(u)gustalis, Comitianus, Minianus, Catus, Germanilla, Jovina.’

This tablet is also known as the ‘Bath Curse’. It was found on site in 1880, during Major Davis’s excavations of the Sacred Spring. Although written conventionally (left to right), several of the letters within this piece of text have been reversed.
This curse tablet alludes to a more serious theft - the theft of a woman (perhaps a slave) named Vilbia.



6.Theft of a rug – BATRM1983.13.b.113

‘…the rug which I have lost,…(his) life…has stolen…unless with his own blood.’

The text on this tablet is mixed and needs to be treated as a series of anagrams to be deciphered. Rather than being a secret cryptic text, it would seem that the writer suffered from dyslexia and got his letters muddled up.



For the full inside story on the featured curses and more read:

Tomlin, R.S.O., 1988 ‘The curse tablets’ in Cunliffe (ed.) 1988.

Tomlin, R.S.O., 1992 ‘Voices from the Sacred Spring’ in Bath History Volume IV, Millstream Books

The ‘Celtic Curse’ features as one of Bath in 100 Objects more information can be found at http://visitbath.co.uk/site/100-objects

The Curses Condensed

Curse Tablets

‘Curse tablets’ are inscribed pieces of lead, usually in the form of small, thin sheets, intended to influence by supernatural means, the actions or welfare of persons or animals against their will. At Bath they mostly appeal to the goddess Minerva, although we do have one petition to Mars and another to Mercury.

In nearly all cases, both here and elsewhere, they appear to have been written in response to theft – here, most likely from the adjoining bath-house.

The Roman Baths has 137 curse tablets within the collection. They are described as being lead, but in most cases they have been made of lead alloy and are better described as pewter………

Of those 137…..

29 are written in capitals

80 are written in ‘cursive’, a script used for everyday documents and letters. Of these, 63 are written in Old Roman Cursive ORC and 17 are written in New Roman Cursive NRC (Indirectly NRC is the ancestor of the scripts used for present day handwriting in Europe.)

4 are written in illiterate texts - scratches made to imitate writing, or sometimes with no trace of writing at all.

5 tablets are un-inscribed.

7 tablets are still folded or otherwise illegible.

Between them all there are over 150 names mentioned.

2 are believed to have come from the same sheet of metal.

1 shows evidence of being copied.

1 could possibly have been written by someone with dyslexia.

Some are double sided, some have nail holes, some have been folded and some have not…….

The very writing of curses was manipulated for magical effect. Letters could be written in mirror-image form or the order of letters in a word, the words in a line, or lines in a text might be reversed. They are mostly written as one long continuous text without abbreviations. The writer might also change the direction in which words or letters were written in alternating lines.

Important comparative sites

Caerleon
Uley
Lydney
Brean Down

For a nice compact website on curses in general please follow this link http://curses.csad.ox.ac.uk/beginners/

Helen Harman - Collections Assistant

A Cast of Little People

One of the most interesting aspects of my job recently has been my involvement in the Roman Baths Museum's Development Plan.

4th Century Model

In 2008, I was asked to draw up a "cast list" for the scale model of the site in the 4th century AD. The model maker (the artist Gerry Judah) asked for full descriptions; complexion, hair colour, stance, and even who each person was interacting with, even though the people were only ...mm high..

I tried to include many ordinary people in it; different ages, colours, fashions, visitors and workers. Local Aquae Sulis residents, like modern day Bathonians, familiar with the amazing buildings and seeing the baths just as a place to go on a wet afternoon. But to the foreign visitors, looking around at the colourful buildings, they were very Roman though so far from Rome, and with a twist of local interpretation.

Temple and Temple Courtyard 4th Century Model

If you look carefully you'll find children are playing behind the temple, in the large open air precinct. A woman with her washing gazes at a religious ceremony walking past.

A lot had to be guesswork. All the evidence of Roman baths and temple, the inscriptions and literary references, tend to be from the Mediterranean, so we don't know whether these were the norm everywhere else. When the nineteenth century excavators dug the baths, they didn't record what they found in each room. As a result, we're not sure whether women were in the east baths or the west, or whether mixed bathing was allowed; the Emperor Hadrian did ban it, but did the Baths manager obey this? How were the rooms lit? 100s of oil lamps or burning torches? Who knows if the staff (or were they slaves?) had uniforms, but we dressed them all in green tunics, so you can find them as they sweep, sell snacks or hand out towels.

West Baths 4th Century Model

In 2009, the model was installed. Apart from one drunk priest, a wayward ball player who fell over and had to be re-glued, and a purple alien who joined the religious procession, all the little people are still there in suspended animation. Next time you visit, take a closer look!

Susan Fox - Collections Manager