Dodecahedron Mystery Solved?

Modelling glove made with a dodecahedron

It is quite some time since I was last persuaded to don my Roman arms and armour (for good reason, I’ve still got the chafe marks on my shoulders to prove it) but an opportunity presented itself recently when my office was flash-mobbed by the Curator of Egyptology, Campbell Price, with visiting researcher Regina Degiovanni who proceeded to give me an impromptu demonstration of how to make a pair of Roman gloves using a bronze dodecahedron… I feel I should point out that Manchester Museum has a wonderful knitted Coptic sock in its Egyptology collection, making us a popular port-of-call for experimental archaeologists who seek to puzzle out how people in antiquity rose to the challenges that everyday life threw at them, such as how to knit themselves a pair of socks, or, as in this case, a pair of gloves.

Coptic sock in the Egyptology collection with Regina’s instruction

Except that I suspect the reverse was true: presented with the mystery of what the bronze dodecahedra found in the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire were for, the intrepid experimental archaeologists arrived at the ingenious solution that they were used for knitting gloves. Sadly the wonderful archaeology collection at Manchester Museum is not blessed with an actual example of a dodecahedron but Regina had managed to obtain a 3D scan of one. Generations of Romanists, Classical scholars and archaeology students have long debated the purpose of these enigmatic objects. With ten sides, containing circular openings or apertures of different diameters and surmounted by knobs where the planes intersect, the famous dodecahedra have long defeated academic enquiry. The someone hit on the solution that they were used for knitting and Regina showed how it was done and asked me to model the fingers of the gloves (see photo).

Finger gloves and dodecahedron

Regina had been in contact with living history interpreters who dressed as Roman soldiers and they had talked about the need to cushion or insulate their hands against metal arms and armour, which not only chafes but in cold weather can be very uncomfortable to carry or wear. I happened to have a replica Roman spear lying around the office and so it was, literally within a minute, my calm orderly existence talking to Sam our Conservator before going to meet my 2 o’clock appointment was turned upside down and I found myself posing for a photo, pilum and dodecahedron in hand, wearing knitted finger stalls. I don’t suppose many people can say they’ve done that.

The fingers of the glove

One thing is for sure: the gloves certainly helped to take the chill off the metal spear I was holding. Whether this does indeed solve the mystery of the dodecahedra is another question. What we need is some use wear analysis of the surface of the knobs on the outside of actual archaeological examples of dodecahedra using a stereomicroscope or a metallographic microscope to see if indeed there is any evidence of threads having been looped around the knobs consistent with the process of knitting. If this does indeed prove to be the case then activities for public programmes in the Museum for the foreseeable future can expect to be dominated by the experimental knitting of gloves to go with our Coptic sock. Does a new career modelling experimental archaeological knitwear beckon I wonder? Watch this space.

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.

Young Archaeologists Club Meeting: Roman Shields at Manchester Museum

Roman Republican legionaries

It is already a year since the successful ancient Greek shields meeting at Manchester Museum. We always planned a session looking at Roman soldiers so January’s Young Archaeologists Club meeting  focused on Roman shields. I took along the Museum’s replica Roman shield, helmet and sword-and-scabbard as well as my hand painted Roman Republican legion to show the children. After explaining how the Roman soldiers were equipped and looking at the organization of the army using the painted figurines, we got the children making shields out of cardboard and old yoghurt cartons from the recycling cupboard. You always know when a session is popular because the children really concentrate on what they are doing and there is low background hum of activity. At the end of the session the children proudly showed-off  their legionary shields.

Mamucium’s finest. Young Archaeologists Club January 2014 meeting at Manchester Museum

It is a long-cherished dream of mine and Andy Fear in Classics and Ancient History to set up a University Wargames Club with the intention of engaging schoolchildren and students in the subjects of ancient history and archaeology. The availability of relatively cheap but historically accurate plastic figurines representing a wide range of historical periods makes it possible to explore ancient military history in a visual way that enhances students’ understanding of this aspect of the ancient world.

Roman Republican legion as described by Polybius: velites are in front, then the successive lines of hastati, princeps and triarii. Allied cavalry and slingers are on the flanks.

In fact only last Friday Cat Lumb from the Education team at the Museum and I met two teachers from Walkden School who were interested in using the Museum’s Classical archaeology collection to help teach ancient history, particularly Alexander the Great and the War with Hannibal. Being able to show visually what the Macedonian phalanx looked like using scale figurines was especially interesting for the teachers.

The Macedonian phalanx fought 16 ranks deep

It would be great if we could get young people painting the figures and wargaming battles from the ancient world. At a time when concern has been expressed about young people not socialising  because of electronic media it would provide a way for meaningful face-to-face interaction in a creative setting, Using hundreds of painted plastic scale figurines there is a real opportunity to demonstrate what happened in ancient battles and inject a sense of fun by role-playing the different commanders. It would also create a sense of spectacle that might well be of interest to visitors to the Museum (see below).

The Macedonian phalanx

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.

Castleshaw Roman Forts Again

Castleshaw Roman fort, standing in the join between two of the earthern ramparts (centre foreground)

A few weeks ago I posted a blog about a visit Christine and I made to Castleshaw Roman forts in the Pennines near Oldham. This followed the visit by the Friends of Castleshaw Roman forts to Manchester Museum see finds from the excavations that took place there during the early 1900s. I see that the blog has mysteriouisly disappeared so I thought I’d redraft it, taking advantage of the fact that since I first wrote it, the Son of Mars exhibiton has opened at the Museum of Lancashire in Preston. This exhibiton celebrates the work of archaeological illustrator, Graham Sumner, and includes a number of his wonderful paintings of Roman soldiers and Castleshaw Roman fort. 

Landscape at Castleshaw

The fort site is at the top of a valley overlooking a couple of reservoirs. The best way to get to the site is along the A62 and follow signs to Castleshaw Centre (on Waterworks Road). There is a small car park and the fort is on a hill on the other side of the road. You approach the fort across a fairly steep field. The fortlet can be seen very clearly on the AA route planner website if you go onto satellite. The photo above is looking back down the slope through the corner of the fortlet. There was a fort for an auxiliary unit or regiment of about 500 men covering 2.5 acres here from the 70s AD. It was abandoned for a time after AD 85 and early in the 2nd century it was re-occupied by a smaller contingent of about 80 men. A fortlet was built within the original footprint of the fort. It went out of use about 120 AD.

Graham Sumner’s reconstruction of Castleshaw Roman fort on the information panel at the site

All this is explained in the information panel on site, which features authoritative reconstruction illustratrations by Graham Sumner.

Interpretation panel at Castleshaw

There is  a long history of antiquarian interest in the site and a number of excavations were carried out during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. People’s poet, Ammon  Wrigley, leased the field containing the fort and dug a number of trenches in 1898. There is a photograph of this work in Sam Seville’s With Ammon Wrigley in Saddleworth (1984). A few years ago I came across a piece of Roman tile from Castleshaw with Ammon Wrigley’s name written on it that probably comes from this work.  Wrigley is better known as a poet, however, and his lengthy poem Castleshaw  was inspired by the Roman explorations. This is one of the verses:-

Now we see a phantom people
Meet them on the paved way,
Watch them at thier daily labours,
Here within their walls of clay;
But the scenes of pomp and warfare
Who can picture, who can tell
What the tide of Roman conquest
Washed upon this moorland fell?

The first serious work was done by Bruton Andrew and Lees in 1907-8. This is the material in the Manchester Museum archaeology collection. There are sherds of Roman pottery including samian ware, mortaria or grinding or mixing bowls and coarse wares; melon beads; glass fragments including part of a ribbed bowl, and a number of pieces of wood, possibly to be identified as the pilum muralis, the stake used to defend a rampart.

Friends of Castleshaw Roman forts visit to see material from the 1907-8 excavations at Manchester Museum

Sadly some rather spectacular pieces of leather that had been preserved very well in the acidic moorland environment  cannot be located. The photograph shows the uppers of Roman sandals or boots comparable to what has been found at Vindolanda.  They have been missing since at least the 1970s. It woud be brilliant if we could find out what happened to them.

Uppers of Roman shoes from the Pit at Castleshaw – what happened to them?

if you want to find out more about the forts and the potential for further archaeological work, Norman Redhead has written an article in the Saddleworth Historical Society Bulletin (vol.42, no.3, autumn 2012, pp.65-75). Ken Booth’s Roman Saddleworth, the History, Archaeology and Visible Remains of the Roman Occupation of an area in the Pennines  (Saddleworth Archaeological Trust, 2001) is available from the Saddleworth Museum in Uppermill.  There is a small display about Castleshaw in the museum. A visit to the site and the museum in Uppermill is warmly recommended. On a fine day with a picnic, it’s a treat.

Saddlworth Museum display of Castleshaw finds

Incidentally I’d like to thank the anonymous elderly couple who kindly guided me the last part of the way to the car park after I’d taken a wrong turn at the reservoir on Sat.20th July.  I think I mentioned where I worked and why I was trying to find the fort but I didn’t catch their name.

the Son of Mars exhibition at the Museum of Lancashire

Roman legionary at the Museum of Lancashire, Preston

The Bank Holiday weekend treat was to go and see an exhibition of the work of archaeological illustrator Graham Sumner at the Museum of Lancashire in Preston. Graham used to work for the Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit. He specialises in showing the soldiers as individuals, with well-researched, historically-accurate uniforms and equipment. It’s great to see the soldiers presented as individuals. I  understand their facial features are based on people Graham knows, making each reconstruction virtually unique. Some, like the Roman soldier from Egypt featured on the blog a few weeks ago, have an encaustic portrait as a guide: https://ancientworldsmanchester.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/reconstructing-a-soldier-from-roman-egypt/ 

Sons of Mars at the Museum of Lancashire

The exhibition occupies two rooms on the first floor of the building. Visitors are welcomed by two life-size cut-outs of a Roman legionary and an auxiliary soldier. I recognised the  auxiliary from Castleshaw Roman fort that I visited a few weeks ago following the session with the Friends of Castleshaw Roman Forts to see the finds from the early 1900s excavations at Manchester Museum https://ancientworldsmanchester.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/friends-of-castleshaw-roman-forts-visit-the-museum/

Sons of Mars at the Museum of Lancashire

In amongst the usual first and second century AD reconstructions are paintings of a Roman fort by a Dutch river and sailors in the navy of the 3rd century British usurper Carausius.  A small display of finds illustrating ‘everyday’ life from Roman Lancashire seemed a bit tokenistic but it would be churlish to criticise the exhibition on that account.

Ideally the exhibition would be supported by Roman military equipment or material showing the evidence on which the reconstructions were based. To a degree visitors do get some insight into the process. One of the soldiers from Roman Egypt is shown with interchangeable objects in his hands. There are two versions of the auxiliary cavalryman Insus, whose spectacular tombstone, or rather commemorative stone, was found in Lancaster in 2005. Each image shows the cavalryman with different versions of sword and scabbard. It reminded me of a children’s spot-the-difference puzzle!

Everyday Roman exhibits

Some of the later Roman Empire soldiers are particularly colourful. A painting of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius  (610-641 AD), complete with headress of peacock plumes, may challenge some visitors’ preconceptions. These aren’t characterless, identically-uniformed catapult fodder but popinjays seemingly better suited to a catwalk. Talk about never mind the quality, feel the width!

Gaudy Roman soldiers in the Son of Mars exhibition

Admission to the Museum of Lancashire is free and the exhibition runs until 3rd November. Combined with a visit to the Harris Museum, also in Preston (of which more later), this made a most enjoyable (and low-cost) day out.

A Roman soldier from Egypt

Graham Sumner’s reconstruction of the Roman soldier from Egypt whose encaustic portrait is in the Manchester Museum collection

Reconstructing a Soldier from Roman Egypt

Encaustic portrait of soldier from Roman Egypt in the Manchester Museum collection (accession no. 11306)

This is the encaustic portrait of a man who lived in Egypt when it was a province of the Roman Empire. Unfortunately we don’t know his name. It is one of a large number of encaustic or mummy protraits – the total lies in the hundreds Campbell tells me – from Greco-Roman Egypt.

It was the basis of a reconstruction illustration by the talented artist, Graham Sumner, who used to work for the Greater Manchester Archaeology Unit. Graham Sumner’s article ‘Painting a Reconstruction of the Deir el-Medineh Portrait’ can be found in Marie Louise Nosch (ed.) Wearing the Cloak Dressing the Soldier in Roman Times (Oxbow Books, 2012), pp. 117-127.

Graham Sumner’s reconstruction of the Roman soldier from Egypt whose encaustic portrait is in the Manchester Museum collection

This is  how Graham Sumner has portrayed the anonymous man in a reconstruction. His work is featured in a new exhibition of paintings of Roman soldiers at the Museum of Lancashire in Preston which opens on 17th August. In the image above you can see that the man is wearing a sword. The pommel of the sword handle sticks up under the right armpit and there is a rather uncomfortable looking belt decorated with studs running from the left shoulder and under the right arm. Graham’s caption to his reconstruction painting says it prevented the fabric of the tunic interfering with the sword.

So far as encaustic portraits are concerned, it was the custom in Greco-Roman Egypt to put a portrait of the dead person in position over the face of the mummy. William Flinders Petrie found a number of encaustic portraits at Hawara and they caused a sensation when they were first shown in the UK. However, they tended to be seen like European paintings as works of art and shown in art galleries. Once divorced from the context of the mummy, the portrait lost vital information such as the name, status and rank of the dead person.

Manchester Museum is very fortunate in that it has three mummy portraits that are still in their original postiion on the mummy, which makes them very important indeed. They represent a small but nonetheless significant percentage of the less than a hundred mummy protraits that still survive in situ. They offer an independent and objective means of checking  how accurate a portrayal of the deceased has been made as the original appearance of the dead person can be recovered by making a facial reconstruction.

But what of the soldier himself? Unfortunately because many of the encaustic mummy portraits were treated as art objects, less attention was paid to the portrait as a vital piece of funerary evidence telling us the name and status of the deceased. Very likely some of these associations had already been lost by the time of recovery. Whatever the reason, sadly we don’t know this man’s name. However there are some very good sources, in the form of papyri, that shed light on the life of soldiers in Egypt. Some ancient Egyptian manuscripts found in the university library in Michigan provide a vivid impression of the kind of life that our soldier might have lived.

In 2003, a student of Classical Archaeology at the University of Michigan, Rob Stephan, discovered more than a dozen unpublished texts in the Papyrology Collection. The University collection contains more than 12,000 individual fragments of papyrus. The papyri Rob found were originally uncovered during an excavation of the Egyptian town of Karanis during the 1920s and ’30s led by Prof. Francis Kelsey. Kelsey had worked at Oxyrynchus with B.P.Grenfell and seen for himself how much documentation was lost by ignoring the Greco-Roman contexts on ancient Egyptian sites. He sent the papyri back to Michigan at the end of the excavation for further study. Apparently the papyrus documents that Rob Stephan were not previously known. They were found under a stairway in a house during the excavation of Karanis.

From our point of view what is really interesting about this discovery is that the letters were written to a retired Roman soldier, Tiberianus, who settled in Karanis in Egypt, about 200 miles south-west of Cairo, during the early second century AD. Admittedly this was some time earlier than the time when the man on our encaustic portrait was alive but essentially this archive correspondence allows us to reconstruct a social context for our soldier.

The archive consists largely of letters he exchanged with a number of other individuals, in particular Claudius Terentianus who refers to himself as Tiberianus’ son. The relationship isn’t necessarily a biological father-son relationship, however. Another man Ptolemaios is also described in the Karanis archive as father of Terentianus. Was Tiberianus something like a guardian to Terentianus? Both men have Roman names and were stationed in Egypt during the Roman occupation. However, the letters are written in Greek, the everyday language used by non-Egyptian communtiesin Egypt, not Latin.

Like the famous Vindolanda tablets from northern Britain, the letters reveal the everyday realities of life in the Roman world, particularly for a soldier in the Roman army. For example, the young soldier wrote home to ask for boots and socks to keep his feet warm during a cold winter and to ask his father for permission to marry his native Egyptian girlfriend. Terentianus also tells how he is being sent to Alexandria to quell riots. Tiberianus, was clearly well-read because one of the papyri is a fragment of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. In other words, Tiberianus, could read Greek literature, suggesting that he came from an educated family, and could read several different  languages. He was must have been part of the social elite in the community of Keranis at the time.

In drawing upon the wonderful archive of letters from Keranis to provide a biography for the soldier who appears in the encaustic protrait displayed at the Manchester Museum, I have taken a lead from the inspiring work carried out at the John Rylands library. That project brought together the library’s papyrus collections with portraits from this museum. The students of Thomas Whitham Sixth Form College, Burnley, were invited to ‘voice’ a particular person based on what was known about his or her life, their family relationships and standing in society, working under the guide of academics and graduate students from Classics, and Religions and Theology at the university. You can see the short film about this work at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd-OJkLBTww

I have tentatively linked Graham’s reconstruction of the Museum’s encaustic protrait (no.11036) with the letters of Terentianus from Karanis as a way of giving him a plausible social context but it would only be fair to point out that Graham has also painted a dedicated reconstruction of Terentianus. It can be seen on page 118 of Graham’s article in Wearing the Cloak (see above for reference). You’ll also find a short account of Terentianus in Richard Alston’s Soldier and Society in Roman Egypt (Routledge, 1995).