Making a Good Impression with Roman Inscriptions

Just got back exhausted but exhilarated from a really successful teaching session about Roman inscriptions with a class of children from both Manchester Grammar School and a Blue Coat School studying Latin and/or Classical Civilisation. The session was led by Dr Andrew Fear from University of Manchester Department of Classics. The idea was to engage schoolchildren with Roman material to help them with their studies and to encourage them to maintain an interest in things Classical.

Earlier this afternoon we divided the class into two groups and one half looked at making impressions from Roman inscriptions using the cliche mould or ‘wet squeeze’ method and the other studied some Roman coins that our Numismatist Keith Sugden had got out in advance for them.

sestertius of Trajan (AD 98-117 ) obverse

The cliche mould technique involves placing a sheet of blotting paper over an inscription and using a stiff brush to push the softened paper into the incised surface of the piece of stone. This is a very old way of making accurate copies of Greek, Latin and other inscriptions in the field. The practical aspect of making a cliche mould from an inscription really engaged the students, whereas talking to them about epigraphy  would almost certainly have left them cold. Fortunately no damage was done to a Roman inscription because we used a piece of marble with an inscription that is a fake. That wasn’t a problem because the whole point of the exercise was getting the students involved in doing something practical.

It’s all in the brush work

 

Finished cliche mould of Roman inscription

The other exercise was looking at and understanding Roman coins. We got out a denarius and a sestertius of the emperor Trajan (AD 98-117) and a denarius and a sestertius of the emperor Hadrian (AD 117-138). Armed with a crib sheet from their earlier session with Andy and a magnifying glass and an angle-poise lamp, the students studied each coin, transcribed the inscriptions or legends and translated them. In this way they were able to consolidate what they had learnt earlier about the use of abbreviations such as COS – Consul, or AVG – Augustus, or PP – Pater Patriae for ‘father of his country’. We swapped the coins over half way so they could look at different coins.

Looking at Roman coins

The students picked this up remarkably quickly, further evidence, if any were needed, that there really is nothing like the real thing for inspiring and engaging young (and old) minds. The thought of teaching Classics without supporting objects seems to me to do students an injustice, and, of course, we are well-placed at the Museum in being able to draw upon some amazing collections and provide invaluable hands-on  experience. If that doesn’t enhance the learning experience, then nothing will. We hear a great deal about digital interpretation and augmented reality, and new technology certainly has a place but I don’t think anything beats tactile interaction with the real thing. My observations of this afternoon suggest that it was a successful session and that the children enjoyed it and were stimulated by it. It’ll be interesting to see the evaluation sheets from the school.

Of course we have to declare an interest. Fewer and fewer students study this type of material. This is hardly surprising given that it used to be government policy to  marginalise Classics. Charles Clarke, back in 2003, said he was little concerned were the study of classics ‘to go the way of all flesh’. The number of pupils taking Latin GCSE in the state sector plummeted from about 8500 in 1988 to less than 3500 in 2004. Yet the benefits of teaching Classics have long been known. An Indianapolis survey on the effects of teaching Latin to 6^th grade children (1973) showed that after 5 months of Latin, the children had advanced 7 months in maths, 8 months in word knowledge, 9 months in problem solving, one year in reading, AND 13 months in language.

denarius of Hadrian (AD 117-138)

The session was supported by the University’s Widening Participation Department. Thanks to to Cat Lumb, Andy Fear and Irit Narkiss for organising and running the session.

Roman Finds Group Meeting at Manchester Museum 8th October 2014

Roman military diploma

The last week has been rather busy, not least because of the Roman Finds Group meeting that was held at Manchester Museum on 8th October, which I helped to organize. The group is aimed at people, museum curators, archaeologists and those who share an interest in Roman archaeology. First up was Paul Holder, who works at the University’s library and who is leading authority on Roman military diplomas. It was Paul who published Manchester Museum’s incomplete military diploma from Ravenglass, arguably awarded to a man perhaps from Heliopolis in the Lebanon who was recruited into a regiment from the Roman Army of Britain when an expeditionary force went out to help suppress the serious Judaean revolt during the reign of Hadrian in the 130s AD.

Norman Redhead talking about the recent work at Castleshaw Roman forts

Norman Redhead, County Archaeologist and Director of Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit talked about recent work at Castleshaw Roman forts. This was not the first time the site had been excavated and Norman described the various interventions at this fascinating early Roman military frontier site, which lies between Slack, near Huddersfield, and Manchester. In the 18th century the antiquary Percival sketched two forts here and the people’s poet Ammon Wrigley did some work, but the first serious archaeological work was directed by Francis Bruton over two seasons in 1907-8. Rosser and later Thompson during the late ’50s and early ’60s carried out further work for the University of Manchester, helping to clarify the relationship between the earlier and larger fort for an auxiliary cohort, and the smaller, later fortlet for a garrison for as few as 50 men. There was a community programme excavation on the site during the mid 1980s.

The earlier fort was occupied between about AD 79 and the mid-90s AD and the fortlet between 105 and the early 120s AD. This tight chronological framework means that finds from the site can be closely dated. Unfortunately the soil conditions were prejudicial to the survival of many materials. One coin of Vespasian could only be documented because its imprint had been preserved in the soil, and even samian was very abraded. Glass objects survived very well, however.  Other finds included a lava quernstone, melon beads of glass and faience, rusticated ware greyware sherds, an onyx intaglio depicting Minerva, and a little Black Burnished ware, which must have entered the North of England shortly before the fortlet was decommissioned in the 120s AD. The finds from the most recent work will go to the Saddleworth Museum. Manchester Museum has the finds from the university-led excavations.

Handsome trumpet brooch from the Knutsford hoard

Vanessa Oakden, Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme spoke about the Knutsford Hoard which was found by a metal-detectorist and included 103 coins, three trumpet brooches, finger rings and vessel fragments. Unfortunately the point of deposition had been ploughed out and the hoard dispersed but there was still a dense concentration of metalwork over some 20 x 10 metres. Some of the coins were still stuck together from their time in the container. The coins included denarii struck for Mark Anthony’s legions, and issues of Vitellius, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius and those struck for imperial ladies such as Sabina, Lucilla and Faustina II. Vanessa compared the hoard contents with another Roman hoard found at Church Minshull, which had 58 denarii and trumpet brooches. The trumpet brooches were similar to the beautiful Carmarthen brooch. The more complete brooches helped explain the rosette mount found loose in the Knutsford hoard. It looks as though the Knutsford hoard was deposited in the 190s AD. It may represent the private wealth of a soldier, landowner or merchant, and is perhaps indicative of the importance of the salt trade in the economy of the area. For further details  look this up on the Portable Antiquities database (LVPL -B44185/2012 T406).

A visit to the Manchester Museum store

The last session before lunch was presented by yours truly and I showed some of the Roman treasures from Manchester Museum’s archaeology collection, such as the Manchester word-square and talked about a couple of breakthroughs that had enabled us to provenance a previously unattributed sizeable collection of Romano-British pottery excavated by Prof.Donald Atkinson at Gayton Thorpe in Norfolk during the 1920s and a Romano-British pot from Longendale, purchased from some young lads who had found it hidden amongst some rocks. When first encountered in the store the latter shared its storage box with two unannotated small format black and white photographs showing the place of discovery and a cryptic note saying it was to be collected ‘by a gentleman’. A discussion of this acquisition turned up in an issue of Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society and the mysterious gentleman turned out to be Christopher Hawkes. This presentation was followed by a visit to the Museum archaeology store where I’d got out a selection of interesting material, including small finds from Castleshaw excavations, late iron Age metalwork from Bigbury, a complete set of decorative zoomorphic feet for a box or casket and an interesting but undoubtedly fake Mithras figurine. In this I was ably assisted and supported by Irit Narkiss, a member of the Museum’s conservation team, to whom thanks are due.

Wooden combs from Vindolanda

After lunch we were treated to a wonderful talk by Barbara Birley who presented the preliminary findings of her study of wooden combs from Vindolanda. The anaerobic soil conditions preserved a range of objects made of organic materials, including textiles, leather shoes, writing tablets and the combs. Vindolanda has yielded some 140 combs and this turns out to be the largest site collection to date (Roman London has only yielded 40). Most date from c.AD 85 to the 160s. Some of the combs were marked with graffiti or stamped with a maker’s mark. Some may have been used by professional hairdressers. Some were decorated with fretting and some had a copper alloy plate. The carefully-recorded excavations allowed the combs to be plotted spatially. One particularly interesting example came with its own leather carrying pouch or case.

Gaming counters from Chester

Our next speaker, Gill Dunn, talked about recent finds from the Chester amphitheatre site. There were two phases of building and the dep0sits contained a fragment from the hilt of a sword and remains of fast food consumed by the crowds, such as swans, geese, duck, and chicken, and fish bones from salmon, eels and carp. In fact there are few sites with such a range of domestic fowl. There were pieces of ceramic portable ovens that were probably made at Holt. The glass included pieces of facet cut vessels and are indicative of relatively high status table ware. A large collection of gaming counters (above) – of particular interest to me because of the set found outside Manchester Roman fort – appear to have been redeposited from elsewhere. Metal finds included mail links, hob nails, tools, and iron finger rings.

Enamelled Romano-British metalwork

The next speaker, Justine Bayley, talked about enamelled Roman objects. Enamel is glass fused to a metal sub-strate. Enamelling occurs on small decorative objects such as brooches, belt plates, seal boxes, studs, fittings and fasteners and votive stands, and occasionally is found on larger vessels, such as the Staffordshire Moorlands pan. Sometimes larger objects were made in separate pieces and soldered together. Some were clearly made a souvenirs for people to take away with them after a posting in the province. Reconstructions of enamelled metalwork showed just how gaudy the enamelled material was originally.

Matt Ponting talking about Roman coin analysis

Our next speaker, Matt Ponting of University of Liverpool, presented results of a programme of sampling of silver Roman coins. Earlier work in this area had sampled the surface of the coins but this gave variable and misleading results because the Romans treated the coin blanks to brighten the surface. This project showed that the Julio-Claudian emperors had a fine silver coinage until Nero reduced the fineness from 93% to 80% silver. The results of the recent sampling were more consistent than earlier readings. This brought the  denarius into line with the coinage of the Greek East and resolved problems with tax collection. The speaker also showed how studying isotopes from the samples might indicate the sources of the silver that was used. Some issues can now be characterized as using Spanish silver, some Gallic. It may be possible to identify a fingerprint for recycled metal. Matt acknowledged the institutions that had allowed sampling of coins in their collections, which include the Manchester Museum.

Scan of a coin showing differences in the metal.

Our last speaker, Rob Philpott, from Liverpool Museum discussed finds from the Roman port of Meolls. In the mid 19th century Abraham Hume reported large numbers of mostly metal discoveries on the foreshore when that stretch of coastline was undergoing rapid erosion by the river.  Activity seems to have started during the later Iron Age  and there are Roman finds even before the region was absorbed into the Roman province. Meolls was an important trading centre on the edge of the tribal territory of the Cornovii, close to that of the Brigantes. The exploitation of salt in the North West may lay behind  the economic transactions that we can detect in the coins and other metalwork found at Meolls. Sadly many of Liverpool’s finds were lost during bombing in World War II but more material has been recorded from the vicinity since then, including tantalizing objects from a later period such as a St Menas flask and a small hoard of Byzantine coins. Such discoveries are often explained away as redeposited souvenirs collected by British servicemen during the first and second World Wars but in some cases the original contextual information appears impeccable. A 6th century AD context for such finds in such a location, easily accessible by water, cannot be lightly dismissed.

St Means flask

Meolls reminded me strongly of a Roman port at Faxfleet, near Brough on the Humber Estuary in East Yorkshire, where large quantities of Roman pottery dating from the later 1st and early 2nd centuries AD was found. Its location close to the confluence of  a number of tributaries flowing into the Humber would have made it a useful location for trade. Unlike Meolls, most of the material found was ceramic. Another site further along the estuary at Redcliff, like Meolls, shows evidence of Roman trade some decades before the Romans came to northern Britain.

There was a great mix of papers at this meeting and my thanks to all those who presented or helped with the day.

A Coin of Corfu in the North West

Greek Imperial issue for Commodus

The copper coin in the image above was found by a metal-detectorist at a metal-detectign rally last month. Keith Sugden, Curator of Numismatics has identified it as a “Greek Imperial” coin (i.e. a Roman coin struck in one of the Greek cities of the empire). It shows the Emperor Commodus (177-192 AD) and the piece was produced in Corcyra (modern Corfu). The god in the shrine on the reverse is Agreus.

The god in the shrine.

As Keith himself has shown with his publication of a hoard of Alexandrian tetradrachms found in Manchester, such coins did not normally circulate in Roman Britain and we might speculate upon the circumstances which led to a Greek Imperial issue of the island of Corfu ending up in North-West Britain. Was it perhaps brought back to the North-West by a soldier returning from service in the Eastern Mediterranean after the First or the Second World War? Such discoveries have been documented in the past.

Beards back in Fashion AGAIN?

Dupondius of Hadrian (AD 117-138).

 

An article in the Telegraph on Thursday 17th April commented on the current fashion for full beards. A pognologist or beard scientist (you can get a degree in anything these days) has pointed to the whiskers sported by bearded tamarins to explain the recent trend, exemplified by The Hairy Bikers and what the journalist Christopher Howse has dubbed ‘The Hairy Allotment Holders’,  for facial fur.

According to ‘negative frequency-dependent selection’, women find the beards of a few men sexy, so other men also grow beards. The popularity of beards not unexpectedly waned once all the men were growing them. In his article Howse writes that in the 20th century the beard disappeared, surviving in such out-of-the way bastions of conservatism as the royal family and the navy.

Of course there is absolutely nothing new in the changing fashion in beards. The Emperor Hadrian (AD 117-138)  made beards popular at the Roman imperial court. Previously the Romans were clean shaven. The fashion can also be seen in the Emperor Gallienus’ rather uncomfortable looking ‘below the jawline’ beard in the 3rd century AD and the Emperor Julian’s full beard in the 4th century AD.

Sestertius of Gallienus (AD 260-8)

Large bronze coin of Julian (AD 361-3)

As something of an American Civil War fan, I am not against beards per se – see the impressive beards worn by Jeff Daniels or Tom Berenger in the film Gettysburg for instance, which surely set the gold standard in facial hirsuteness – but I agree with Howse in wishing that the beard fashion would peak. I am grateful to Keith for making the coins available from the Museum’s Numismatic collection. A very Happy Easter to all the readers of this blog.

New Coin, Plus Ca Change?

New pound coin

The announcement recently of the future issue of a new pound coin because so many of the existing £1 coins in circulation are forgeries reminded me that the ancient Romans had a similar problem. A significant proportion of the silver denarii were silver plated forgeries. The Romans tried to make it harder to forge the denarius by making it with v-shaped cut-outs on the edge of the flan. This was supposed to make it harder to copy as a forgery but in fact within a relatively short space of time the forgers were copying the serratus. It makes you wonder whether the new £1 coin will be any more successful.

Roman Republican serratus showing Juno Sospita

The obverse of the serratus shows the head of Juno Sospita wearing a goat’s skin and on the reverse Juno standing in her biga or chariot, with a serpent beneath the horses. The writing says L.PROCILI.F. The Procili family originated in Lanuvium which is where the cult of Juno Sospita was popular. She was supposed to have a protective role in time of war.

Juno Sospita in her biga or cart

Roman coin striking

I am grateful to Keith Sugden for kindly getting the serratus coin out of the Numismatics collection for me to photograph and share with blog readers.

Roman Coins Seminar

Just like that: Roman coins seminar

The 3rd year students on the Roman Society and Identity Course (ARGY ) had a real treat this afternoon because Keith Sugden brought out some trays of Roman coins to show them. We shared the teaching. Keith took the first half hour and talked about the Roman currency system from the time of Republic to the late 2nd century.  There were gold aurei, chunky sestertii and even an issue in memory of Antinoos, favourite of the Emperor Hadrian.

Inspecting the coins

The great thing about this seminar was that students could not only see the coins up close in the trays, they could handle them as well, gold coins included. Roslynne Bell the tutor commented that it was a good turn out for last thing on a Friday afternoon but the pulling power of Roman coins may have had something to do with it.

Tutor Roslynne Bell

Meanwhile I think I rather drew the short straw because I picked up the second half of the seminar by talking about coins during the later Roman empire, including the debasement of the silver coinage, copying and coins as archaeological site finds. Of course I couldn’t offer anything as nice as Keith’s choice specimens but perhaps that was the point. The students had to familiarise themselves with the coins that turn up on sites: the incredibly worn, corroded and often low weight copies and even downright forgeries that passed for legal tender in the province of Britannia during the later 3rd and 4th centuries. They are a far cry from the pristine coins that are shown in books about the Roman Empire.

Some of the site finds are vile. However, when they turn up in significant numbers they offer the opportunity to present the information in the form of a table or a coin histogram. Comparing the histograms  showing coins losses for a number of sites in Britain showed that many have a similar pattern of coin loss: low rates of coin loss during the first two centuries and then a sudden increase in coin loss during the later 3rd century. Low value radiates make up one of the peaks on the graph in Casey’s Period 18 (260-270). This was followed by the reform of the Emperor Aurelian (270-5).

The high face value of such reformed radiates or aureliani and lack of suitable low denomination coins led to the continued circulation of radiates and radiate copies. There followed a series of falling away from the new standards punctuated by further coin reforms until coinage ceased to be supplied to the province in the early 5th century AD. It used to be thought that the radiate and ‘Fallen Horsemen’ copies filled the gap but it looks as though when gold and silver coins stopped arriving the low value bronze coins that were circulating ceased to enjoy public confidence and the economy collapsed. It is a fascinating period of history. All this in half an hour!

An Antiquarian Gibe

Coin of Valerian

Reverse of coin showing Liberalitas

It is not so long ago that Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, made a disparaging remark about Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minster of the Coalition government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats (Daily Telegraph 18/12/2013).

Disparaging remarks are nothing new in politics. After all, Octavius and Mark Antony wrote to each other in very blunt terms but what was unusual in this recent case is that Boris Johnson compared Nick Clegg to the Emperor Valerian (AD 253-c.260).

I can’t think of many politicians who would make such an erudite, if obscure comment. But Boris has ‘form’ in that he studied classics and has written books about the ancient world. Valerian was captured by the Persians and reputedly skinned and stuffed. Hence the political insult: Nick Clegg like Valerian is a man of straw, the external appearance, not the reality. In an exchange of  tweets that followed the newspaper reports, one wag commented that to add to the insult of being skinned and stuffed by his captors, Valerian  had suffered the  insult of being compared to Nick Clegg!

The joke has additional relish because the coin – a silver antoninianus – that Keith Sugden, Curator of Numismatics at Manchester Museum, selected has an obverse that reads LIBERALITAS. I am sure that’s pure coincidence.

However, it is not entirely clear that Valerian did indeed suffer the indignity of being stuffed. It is also possible that he was on relatively good terms with the Persian king and was sent east with other prisoners-of-war to carry out civil engineering works. But an alternative story of Roman POWs and MIAs wouldn’t make for quite the same political gibe would it?

Engaging with the Roman Army

Students in the basement meeting room

Last Friday afternoon I led a handling session and seminar at the Museum about Roman military archaeology. It was one of those rare occasions when the content of what you have been asked to do happens to coincide with your specialism. It is testament to the interest of the students that they came on the last day of the autumn term just a fortnight before Christmas.

Handling objects used in the seminar

I arranged the seating in the basement room in a square  with myself in the middle with objects on a table.  I passed things round for the students to see and handle. I always make a point of explaining at the beginning that I’m not there to assess them, and that my role is simply to open up the collection for study and discussion.

Replica Roman sword and scabbard

Fortunately we have some replica material in the collection: a shield, a helmet, a sword and scabbard, a dagger and some pieces of mail armour. Arms and armour are, after all, what people tend to think about when you talk to them about the Roman army.

I also showed a plaster cast of the inscription from one of the Manchester altars  set up by a praepositus or commander of a detachment under its own flag or standard, known as a vexillation. This was a detachment of Raetians and Noricans from what is now Switzerland and Austria in Eastern Europe. I also reminded the students of the Museum’s intriguing auxiliary diploma from Ravenglass that was awarded to a Syrian and which is on display in Ancient Worlds.

We talked about pay and Keith Sugden, Curator of Numismatics, kindly supplied a selection of coins of the various 1st and 2nd century emperors, in whose reign the province of Roman Britain had been created and extended, including a commemorative DE BRITANN silver denarius of the emperor Claudius (AD 41-54)  and one of the famous Britannia asses of the emperor Antoninus Pius (AD 142-158).

Tutor, Andy Fear, joins the discussion

Finally I showed them melon beads, gaming counters and pottery from a building just outside Manchester Roman fort, perhaps frequented by soldiers of the garrison when they went off duty in search of some R ‘n R.