Londinium, Architecture and the CraftsLethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
History
Londinium, Architecture and the Crafts
Lethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
England -- Antiquities, Roman; London (England) -- Antiquities, Roman; Romans -- England -- London
One discovered many years ago in South London, illustrated in
_Archæologia_, vol. xvii., had on it two little figures like
Minerva—probably Britannia. Another found at Sittingbourne, recently set
out for exhibition at the British Museum, has little Medusa heads and
pairs of lions watching a vase (Fig. 152).
[Illustration:
FIG. 150.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 151
]
A round lead box, for the reception of burnt bones, found in London and
now in the British Museum, has repeated on it a relief of a four-horse
chariot. This is described in the _Guide_ as the chariot of the Sun; but
comparison with other chariot-racing groups on the pottery and glass
vessels shows that these reliefs must also represent a chariot race
(Fig. 153). This fact adds to the probability that the glass vessels
with reliefs of racing chariots were also made in Londinium. Fig. 154 is
from a simpler lead box found in London; compare the rings with the
painted pattern described at the bottom of p. 169.
[Illustration:
FIG. 152.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 153. FIG. 154.
]
_Pewter._—A large quantity of pewter ware, vessels and dishes, has been
discovered in Britain. Many ingots of the metal were found in the last
century at Battersea in the river. Lysons figured a fragment of “lead”
found at Lydney stamped with a name, and this may have been pewter. The
ingots of pewter were doubtless of British origin, and it is very
probable that the finished objects of this metal were manufactured here.
Many of the dishes have engraved centres of a type of design which can
hardly be earlier than the fourth century. This engraving was filled
with black composition imitating _niello_. The ingots bear marks which
show that they belong to a time when Christianity was recognised.
In the London Museum is a dish with an engraved centre, and at the
British Museum are some plain dishes signed with the name of the owner
or maker, Martinus, which were found in Southwark. Most of the finds of
pewter ware have been made in south-east England, and London is the most
likely place of origin. Lysons illustrates a dish found at Manchester
(it is now in the British Museum) with an engraved centre so like those
found in the south of England that it is probable it also was made in
the south. These dishes were finished in a lathe; at the back they have
traces of three projections by which they were held in turning but
afterwards cut away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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