Three Glittering Bowls

When you next visit The Higgins Bedford, put a little time aside to pop into The Settlement Gallery to stroll round and explore our local archaeology.

Our story begins with a very brief look at the geology of the area and moves swiftly into the Prehistoric period with bones of long gone Woolly Mammoths, Rhinoceroses’ and Cave Bears. The displays continue in chronological order and end with the siege of Bedford Castle and the beginnings of the medieval town.

About half way through your journey your eye will be caught by 3 large glittering copper alloy bowls. The bowls were found buried together in a deep pit in 1856 by workmen building the railway line near Sandy.

The bowls, measuring between 7cm and 11cm high and 23 cm and 31 cm in diameter, are very thin, about 2m thick and they are very lightweight. All three bowls are plain and undecorated apart from simple fluting around the rim edge. Each bowl would have been made by a skilful craftsman beating the shape out of a single sheet of copper alloy.

The bowls are Roman in date and would have originally formed part of a table service belonging to a wealthy household, probably a family living and working in the busy town of Sandy.

Quite why this nest of luxury metal bowls came to be buried near Sandy, we will never know. The most likely explanation could be related to the upheaval and the crumbling of the Roman administration in the province of Britannia, as the Roman Empire went into decline in the late 4^th to early 5^th century AD.

This transition would have affected all levels of society and many people would have faced an uncertain future. It is quite possible that the owners of the bowls fearing for their future decided to deliberately bury these valuable items to safe guard them until they could return at a later time to dig them up.

Written by Liz Pieksma, Keeper of Archaeology

The Apulian red-figured Amphora

In the collections, there is a large and colourful ancient vase. Recently we decided to take this vase out of the store and put it on display in the Collectors Gallery. You may remember a blog from a few months ago, The Volunteers biggest nightmare? written by Derek Niemann.

Once the vase was safely locked in the case we stood back and began to ponder what story was being told with the two beautifully painted scenes on each side of the vase.

Other questions flooded in such as: How old is the vase? Where was it made? Who owned it?

The answers as it turns out were more exciting and complex than we thought.

The vessel is actually a wheel-made red-figured amphora (a jug with two handles and a narrow neck) and can be dated to 350 BCE.

Large painted vessels of this type are associated with Greek potters who moved from their homeland in the 8^th century BCE to set up their own specialist pottery workshops in Apulia, specifically in the town of Taras located in the “Heel” of southern Italy. The settlement of Taras was a thriving port during the Greek and Roman empires, and still is today.

The painted scenes, one on each side of the amphora, illustrate two types of funeral. The scene on side 1 shows a grand temple-like structure with a woman walking into the tomb, carrying a wreath, a white sash and a box. The woman is symbolically painted in white to tell us that she has died and is crossing from our world into the next. She has two female mourners outside, holding ritual bucket-like vessels and torches, who watch over her final journey.

The scene on the other side shows a more simple style of funeral ceremony. Two male mourners face each other across a simple box-shaped tomb. The tomb has a zigzag decoration at the top with a black sash tied around the middle.

The one answer we will never know is who owned this ancient amphora. Nevertheless, we now know far more about this wonderful pottery vessel than we did before.

The Higgins Bedford thanks Alan Johnston, Emeritus Reader in Classical Archaeology at University College London, for his identification and generous advice on the story behind this Apulian red figure amphora. 

Written by Liz Pieksma, Keeper of Archaeology

Roman Stone Votive Altar

This small, Roman votive altar was found by workmen digging for gravel deposits in the open fields in and around Kempston during the 19^th century.

The altar, carved from a very hard, fine grained stone, is relatively small in size: 21 cm high by 10 cm wide and 6cm broad, suggesting that to some degree it was intended to be portable. Small altars similar to this in size are often associated with household worship hence the need to be portable.

To many Romans, worshiping gods and goddesses combined with the offering of sacrifices and other rituals was an important part of everyday life. These offerings were often dedicated to a particular god either as a gift or to ask for help in personal issues such as restoring good health, love, wealth or fending off evil.

Altars in temples and public shrines would have been much larger in size and many were elaborately carved and even painted. The rituals and performances practiced here would have been more dramatic …..and may even have even included animal sacrifices.

Household or domestic worship would have been an important routine to ensure the safety and prosperity of the family members. Popular items offered or sacrificed to the gods would have included fruit, cooked foods such as bread, cakes and meat or libations and incense. These would have been placed on the slightly indented top, the focus, of the altar and could either be left whole or set on fire.

Written by Liz Pieksma, Keeper of Archaeology

The Old Warden Mirror

Date: Iron Age. 50 BCE-50 CE

 BEDFM 11720

One of my favourite items in the Settlement Gallery at The Higgins Bedford is an Iron Age mirror discovered at Old Warden in the 1850’s by workmen digging a railway tunnel. The mirror is made of bronze and has a very elaborate swirling design on the non-reflective side created by skillfully etching the design into the surface. In the Iron Age, metal mirrors were rare personal objects and would probably have been treasured items belonging to wealthy individuals, they may even have been passed down as heirlooms.

The mirror has recently returned from loan to a prestigious exhibition in Zurich. The highly acclaimed Museum Rietberg Zurich recently borrowed the Old Warden mirror for their 2019 summer exhibition: “Mirrors-the Reflected Self”. In the beginning when the mirror was away on loan it felt very strange to think that our mirror was on display in another museum, but as I became more comfortable with the situation, I began to feel pleased that the mirror was contributing to something big and different.  Since the mirror’s return, I often stop by the case to admire it; it is like seeing an old friend.

Written by Liz Pieksma, Keeper of Archaeology