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A Late Antique Decorated Casket and Jewellery from the Roman Villa at Fordham, Essex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2024

Stephen Greep Open the ORCID record for Stephen Greep [Opens in a new window] ,
Martin Henig  and
Frank Lockwood
Stephen Greep
Affiliation:
Independent researcher sjgreep@gmail.com
Martin Henig
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology, University of Oxford martin.henig@arch.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

During excavations of a Roman villa at Fordham, Essex, a remarkable series of decorated bone and antler veneer plaques were recovered from villa destruction deposits. They are datable to the later fourth or fifth centuries a.d. and probably once adorned a casket holding bathing equipment and jewellery. Spread through the three main rooms of the villa, fragments were recovered from at least 10 metres apart, so the object is likely already to have been broken when deposited. The plaques are decorated with ‘late antique’ style figural, zoomorphic, vegetal and architectural motifs on a cross-hatched background, with the best-preserved design probably relating to female bathing.

Keywords

casketantlerboneveneerbathingjewellery
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 55 , November 2024 , pp. 209 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

1

Sadly, Frank Lockwood died in January 2021 and therefore never saw the last remaining veneer finds from later seasons.

References

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