2,000-Year-Old Hadrian’s Wall Cup Discovered in Spain

A bronze cup with enamel decoration depicting Hadrian’s Wall has been discovered in Berlanga de Duero, Spain. It is the second vessel of the Hadrian’s Wall type found in Spain, and is the only one of any of them to name forts on the east side of the wall. A new study of the Berlanga Cup has been published in the journal Britannia.

The first of these vessels, later known as Hadrian’s Wall pans, was discovered in Rudge, Wiltshire, in 1725. It was inscribed along the rim with the names of five of the forts on the western sector of Hadrian’s Wall, information which was helped scholars at the time conclusively identify the known forts. The Rudge Cup is decorated with schematic representations of the Wall’s fortlets and turrets in Champlevé enamel (small cells cut into the bronze and filled with different colors of enamel).

In the 20th century, three more vessels and two fragments were found in France, England and Spain. The Hadrian’s Wall type vessels are believed to date to the 130s A.D., shortly after the completion of the Wall. They have been interpreted as souvenirs or presentation vessels acquired near the Wall, but there is no evidence of where they manufactured.

The Berlanga Cup was found in farmland where subsequent archaeological investigations uncovered evidence of a Roman rural settlement or a large country villa complex. It was broken into four fragments, with one of them comprising more than half of the bowl. It is a hemispherical bowl just under 4.5 inches in diameter at the widest point below the rim. About 3.2 inches high, it is the largest of the Hadrian’s Walls pans.

The inscription at the rim is missing some letters due to the missing fragments, but the surviving letters are […]RNVMONNOV[…]DOBALACONDERCOM. This breaks down into the names the forts of Cilurnum (Chesters, Northumberland), Onno (Halton Chesters, Northumberland), Vindobala (Rudchester, Northumberland) and Condercom (Benwell, Northumberland) represented as [CILU]RNUM, ONNO, V[IN]DOBALA and CONDERCOM.

It is enamelled in the same colors as the other pans (navy blue, green, red, turquoise) and like the comparable vessels, it depicts stylized representations of the ashlar masonry of Hadrian’s Wall.

The central frieze is organised into three bands of squares, alternating green and blue, which gives an appearance of unity. Finally, the central frieze combines two types of metopes, separated by a thick serrated cord whose interior is enamelled in red. The first metopes are presented as a projection of the lower frieze in the form of a crenellated tower. The interior of these is divided into four squares filled with blue and turquoise enamel, with two half-moons at the base filled with turquoise. The second type of metope is decorated with four-petalled flowers filled with turquoise enamel. These floral motifs are framed above and below by two green enamelled crescents and, on the sides, by triangles filled with blue enamel. This colourful decoration even extends to the letters and symbols of the inscription, which are also filled with turquoise.

The upper friezes, present on all Hadrian’s Wall pans except the Ilam Pan, have traditionally been interpreted by most researchers as an elevation of the wall itself, from which crenellated turrets protrude, which can be seen as military forts, perhaps those mentioned in the epigraphy. The two largest cups, the Berlanga and the Hildburgh fragment, also show a third frieze at the bottom with curved motifs which, if we follow the majority hypothesis, should be interpreted as the ditch in front of the wall.

The discovery of the Berlanga Cup with its eastern fort names confirm that the pans were not part of a single set. They each name different forts, and they are different enough from each other in shape and design, so they weren’t created to match each other. It’s likely instead that the bodies of the cups were made first, then the bronze finished, the inscription added to order and the enamel applied to the inside of the lettering.

* This article was originally published here