Thread by @DocCrom

#EpigraphyTuesday - The Water Newton bowl, a silver Romano-British bowl, ca. 4th Century AD, bearing a rather fabulous little Christian inscription. #Latin #Inscription

Image: British Museum (1975,1002.5). Link – britishmuseum.org/collection/obj…

Discovered in 1975 as part of a collection of precious metal items – the Water Newton Hoard – which included elements decorated with Christian symbols, including the 'feather-plaques', though these forms are also found in non-Christian contexts.

The bowl bears an inscription of the name 'Publianus' on its base and the following inscription around its rim:

SANCTUM ALTARE TUUM DOMINE SUBNIXUS HONORO

Translation:

‘Lord, prostrating myself, I honour your holy altar'

The Latin is written as a line of dactylic hexameter, suggesting a prayer-like invocation, perhaps even a standardised liturgy, by the Publianus named on the vessel.

The inscription also features the Chi-Rho symbol (☧) between an Α and an ω (the beginning and end of the Greek alphabet, used to symbolise the Christian God). The same symbology appeared on several of the ‘feather-plates’ from the hoard.

That such Christian artefacts were widespread in Britain in the Late 4th and 5th Centuries is highlighted by a beautiful silver flask from the Traprain Treasure: ca. AD 410-425.

Image: National Museum of Scotland (X.GVA 2). Link - nms.ac.uk/explore-our-co…

Here the same Ψηι-Ρηο (☧) between an Α and an ω accompanies a punch-work inscription:

“FRYMIACOEISIAFI”

Translation:

‘Eisia made this for Frymiacus’

For more on the Water Newton hoard and its significance, see:

Frend, W. H. C. “Pagans, Christians, and 'the Barbarian Conspiracy' of A.D. 367 in Roman Britain.” Britannia, vol. 23, 1992, pp. 121–131.

jstor.org/stable/526106

#EpigraphyTuesday #Latin #Inscription🧵