Bronze Jug

Object/Artifact

Trimontium Museum

Name/Title

Bronze Jug

Entry/Object ID

X.FRA 1194

Description

Bronze wine jug with bands of decoration on the body and rim. Ovoid body, flat base and turned-over rim decorated with an ovolo border. It presents a band of decoration around the body with a lotus pattern and traces of silver inlay. The handle is adorned with floral motifs in relief. Grasping the rim, two stylized long-beaked water birds emerge from pointed reeds. The handle ends in a swirl motif framing a female head, with braided hair, hanging curls, and silver inlay in the eyes. From the Roman site at Newstead, late 1st century AD.

Use

Used for wine, high status, luxury item.

Context

This type of vessel represents the art of the early Roman Empire, strongly influenced by Greek tradition - Greek oenochoë. Similar items have been found at Pompeii and throughout the Empire. This type of luxury goods would have been imported by the Roman army for the upper ranks. Fine tableware was imported from the Mediterranean, the Rhineland and France. This vessel was likely imported from Italy.

Collection

National Museums Scotland

Acquisition

Accession

X.FRA 1194

Source (if not Accessioned)

National Museums Scotland

Made/Created

Date made

68 - 100

Time Period

Late 1st century

Place

Location

Trimontium Roman Fort Site, Newstead

Country

Scotland

* Untyped Place

United Kingdom

Ethnography

Cultural Region

Location

Newstead

Country

Scotland

* Untyped Cultural Region

United Kingdom

Culture/Tribe

Roman

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Secondary Object Term

Jug, Serving

Nomenclature Secondary Object Term

Jug

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Vessel, Drink Serving

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Vessel

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Serving Vessels

Nomenclature Class

Food Service T&E

Nomenclature Class

Containers

Nomenclature Category

Category 04: Tools & Equipment for Materials

Nomenclature Category

Category 07: Distribution & Transportation Objects

Getty AAT

Concept

jugs (vessels)

Other Names and Numbers

Other Name

Oinochoe

Other Numbers

Number Type

Previous Accession Number

Other Number

I.15.112

Dimensions

Height

12 in

Material

Bronze

Color

Gold

Condition

Overall Condition

Very Good

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

James Curle

Notes

Excavator

Related Publications

Publication

A Roman Frontier Post and Its People

Publication

Clarke, D.V., Breeze, D.J., and Mackay, G. The Romans in Scotland. An introduction to the collections of the National Museums of Antiquities of Scotland. Edinburgh: National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, 1980.

Notes

p 46

Web Links and URLs

Descriptive entry in the Trimontium Museum website, Artefact description on "A Roman Frontier Post and Its People", J Curle, p.275-276 and Pl. LVI, Artefact page on the National Museums Scotland website, VIDEO, Similar vessel in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Scotland, Similar vessel in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, Artefact page on NMS Scran, Canmore Site Record

Provenance

Provenance Detail

1905 - 1911 Excavations

Acquisition Method

Found

Research Notes

Research Type

Reference

Person

James Curle

Notes

Description on Curle's book: "The second jug (Plate LVI.), which is of somewhat smaller capacity, was found in Pit LVII. It is of yellow bronze, and stands 12 inches high. Around the turned-over rim is an ovolo border. Lower down a band of well executed lotus pattern surrounds the body (Fig. 38 (b)). This contains traces of silver-plating. The handle grasps the rim with the usual heads of long-beaked water-birds, remarkably well executed, issuing from a bunch of pointed leaves (Fig. 38 (a)). The lower end terminates in a female head, with the hair braided and hanging in long curls on either side (c). The eyes have been inlaid with silver. Although in excellent preservation, this oenochoë had clearly seen some service before it was dropped into the pit. The point of the leaf, which must have curved upwards at the apex of the handle, is broken away, and the silver-plating has been worn off by usage. Neither of these vessels can be associated with the later occupation at Newstead. Both were found in pits which had been covered over by later works, and there seems little doubt that they were both deposited in the first century. They belong to a group of vessels which shows the art of the early Empire strongly influenced by Greek tradition and probably Greek workmanship. Like the patellae of the Capuan bronze founders, such jugs are met with scattered somewhat widely over Europe. The Pompeian examples, alluded to above, exhibit not only the same shape but precisely the same method of decorating the handle; the necks of the same long-beaked waterbirds issue from curving reed points to grasp the rim,[1] while the lower ends broaden out into a Medusa head, or perhaps a little group of figures. Not infrequently the whole of the handle is covered with ornament. Silver enrichment, too, is a common feature. The only complete specimen of these ewers hitherto found in Scotland appears to be one discovered in 1807 on the farm of Sadlerhead, in the parish of Lesmahagow, and now the property of the University of Glasgow.[2] 1 Museo Borbonico, xii. tav. 58, 1, 2, also 3, 4. 2 James Macdonald, Tituli Hunteriani, p. 95, plate xvii.