Stuff From Antiquity

Denarius of the Marsic Confederation. It was minted in Campania by C. Papius Mutilius, a Samnite noble.

The obverse shows draped bust of Mars (or Italia) right, wearing a crested Corinthian helmet with plume.

The reverse has an oath-taking scene: four soldiers surrounding a youth holding a pig.

Stone stele from 300-100BC containing an Oscan inscription.

It was found on the inner arch of the Nola Gate in Pompeii. The inscription reads;

Vibius Popidius, son of Vibius, chief magistrate, had charge of this work and approved it.

A glass bowl decorated using a technique called mosaic glass or millefiori (a thousand flowers) as the finished result often looks like a flower pattern.

This looked was achieved by slowly melting different coloured glass rods, fusing them together, then cutting them into discs and placing them in a mould.

A leather tent panel with stitching from the Roman site at Newstead, Roxburgshire, Scotlad, 80 – 180 AD

Bronze arm ring for a child, 6th century BC  

This solid gold beaker was reportedly found by a sponge fisherman off the West Coast of Turkey in the early 1900s. 

On the underside of the foot there is an abbreviated Latin inscription which reports the weight of the beaker. The inscribed weight and the actual weight do not match which has led scholars to conclude that it originally had a lid.

Gold bracelet made up of eight pairs of hemispherical elements. The backs are filled with a solidified ash-like substance, possibly lava.

1st century AD and probably from the area around Pompeii

Decorative piece in the shape of a sea-panther-monster holding a shield with a Silenus mask

A section of a votive relief that depicts Achilles and Thetis. The Greek hero Achilles is recognisable by his shield and helmet. He rides in a chariot with his mother Thetis.

It was probably set up in a religious sanction, the names of the dedicators partially legible at the bottom of the relief;

". . . Lakrates and Gephes of the Achilleides."

Gold Roman amulet in the shape of a male bust

6th century BC Etruscan earring

A deep blue-green cast glass bowl from the Mediterranean, probably 1st century BC to 1st half of the 1st century AD

Fragment of a krater depicting Poseidon and a goddess. 5th century BC

A necklace composed of seven Egyptian emerald beads on a gold chain. Roman period 1st – 3rd century AD

A bust of Emperor Antoninus Pius wearing military dress, from the early years of his reign c. 140

Roman bow brooch with enamel inlay from 1st – 2nd century AD