File:Roman , Lamp (FindID 197334).jpg

English: Treasure case: 2005 T268. The hoard consists of a copper-alloy lamp, a copper-alloy arm-purse and four denarii. The arm-purse (Date: Probably 2nd-3rd century AD) An annular copper-alloy arm-purse. The broad, bracelet-like hoop has a smooth, plain, lightly-cambered inner face. Its cambered exterior face has a central channelled rib and a panel of rather rudimentarily-incised rectilinear decoration at the junction with both ends of the purse. The purse is hollow and leech-shaped, with the normal six-facetted exterior surface. One side is broken away. Only two small unattached fragments of the hinged lid survive. The larger piece retains the full width of the hinged end of the plate, a folded sheet riveted together and enclosing its axis pin. The width corresponds to that of the purse, which, in its complete wall, preserves one of the locating holes for the end of the axis pin. Where the original surface is visible, on the exterior of hoop and purse, a degree of wear is apparent.

Roman copper-alloy arm-purses appear to have been principally, if not exclusively, a male, military accoutrement, with examples found both in auxiliary and legionary contexts in Britain and on the Continent. British examples include those from Birdoswald (2), Corbridge, South Shields, Thorngrafton (near Housesteads), Colchester, Wroxeter, Silchester and Farndale.

Two types have been distinguished (E. Birley 'Roman bronze arm-purses', Archaeologia Aeliana 4th series, 41, 1963, 5-17) dependent on whether the hoop is flexible (with a sliding fastening of the type seen on other bracelets of the time) or rigid. The present arm-purse belongs to the latter category, most examples of which have plain hoops of varying cross-section, though several are decorated at the junction with the purse, and a few have a continuous zone of ornament round the hoop.

Dimensions: Max. external 109.8 x 106.9 mm; max. internal 101 x 74 mm.; width of hinge 20.5 mm. Weight: 149 g.

The lamp (Date: 1st or 2nd century AD) A cast copper-alloy lamp, modelled in plastic form. The main body of the lamp comprises a finely-modelled female head, probably that of a maenad, set against an acanthus moulding that encircles the ribbed oval base. Her elaborately-coiffured hair, centrally-parted, has a braided lock falling on the forehead and a prominent mass of tightly-curled locks gathered around the ears. The knobbed voluted nozzle, which projects beneath her chin, has a circular wick-hole. The ornate moulded ring-handle is surmounted by a funnel-like circular filling-hole, with ridged rim and indented floral- or leaf-patterned flange, and a large handle ornament in the form of a vine-leaf. The lamp was cast with the interior of the base open: the sheet bronze base-plate, probably soldered in position, is now lacking, as is the upper part of the handle's leaf ornament. Damage to one of the nozzle knobs and a chafe on the maenad's right cheek are of recent origin. Roman plastic-modelled copper-alloy lamps were produced over a long period of time and took many, often novel, forms. The closest parallel in the British Museum collections to the present lamp is an un-provenanced example in the Payne Knight Bequest (GR1824, 4-54, 27: D.M. Bailey A catalogue of the lamps in the British Museum. IV: Lamps of metal and stone, and lampstands (British Museum Press, London, 1996), Q3577). Although the head differs - it depicts a grotesque with close-cropped hair, warts and goat's wattles - the handle, nozzle, wick-hole and base, together with their ornament, are closely similar. An example from Fenchurch Street, London (PE1901, 6-6, 2: Bailey 1996, Q3572) is in the form of the figure of Silenus wreathed in ivy and seated on a wine-skin. Like the present example it recalls the Bacchic revel, so popular as a motif in Roman art. Dimensions: Length 115 mm. Height 63 mm. Width of handle 50.8 mm. Width of head 46.6 mm. Weight: 270.7 g. The Coins: Although it is possible that these coins could have been drawn randomly as savings from the Antonine period coinage pool in Britain, the selection - one of each emperor - could also have been a deliberate deposition ritual if, for example, associated with a burial. CATALOGUE (Identifications supplied by S. Holmes) Domitian (AD 81-96) RIC II, p174, No. 175 Trajan (AD 98-117) RIC II, p252, No. 118 Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-80) RIC III, p218, No. 64 Commodus (AD 180-92) RIC III, p393, No. 241