Above: The Great Dish and other Items from the Mildenhall
Treasure. Photo courtesy of 'Estel' Image is licensed under
Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 2.5
The Mildenhall Treasure is a major hoard of
thirty-three Roman silver objects found in the Mildenhall
area of the English county of Suffolk. The hoard was
discovered in January 1942 by a Suffolk ploughman, Gordon
Butcher, who removed it from the ground with help from
Sydney Ford. They did not recognise the objects for what
they were, and it was some years before the hoard came to
the attention of the authorities. In 1946 the discovery was
made public and the treasure was acquired by the British
Museum in London.The treasure is believed to have been
buried in the 4th century.[1]
It includes some of the finest surviving examples of Roman
silversmithing, including the mid-4th century Great Dish
which measures 605 mm in diameter and weighs 8256 g. The
dish glorifies Bacchus and is decorated with a wide band
showing a Bacchic revel, at the heart of which is a drinking
contest between Bacchus and Hercules, who is shown dead
drunk and having to be supported. An inner band of nereids
surrounds a foliated head of the sea god, Oceanus. The dish
was discovered with similarly decorated banqueting items: a
large flat nielloed dish with geometric decoration, silver
platters featuring Pan and maenads, a covered bowl with a
frieze of centaurs and wild animals, as well as flanged
bowls, ladles and spoons. Although the vast majority of the
decoration is classical, three spoons bear the Chi-Rho
symbol of Christ, and the Alpha & Omega, a biblical
reference to Christ as 'the beginning and end'. The treasure
is thought to be of Mediterranean origin.[2]
Above: The Great Dish and other Items from the Mildenhall
Treasure. Photo courtesy of 'Estel' Image is licensed under
Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 2.5
Roald Dahl wrote an article about the find which was
published firstly in the Saturday Evening Post, and
later as 'The Mildenhall Treasure' in his short story
collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six
More.[3]
References
-
The Mildenhall Treasure. Mildenhall Museum.
Retrieved on May 4, 2006.
-
The Great Dish from the Mildenhall treasure. The
British Museum. Retrieved on May 4, 2006.
- Dahl, Roald (1995). The Wonderful Story of Henry
Sugar and Six More, 5th edition, London: Penguin
Group, 215. ISBN 0-14-037348-9.
External links
From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildenhall_Treasure |
