As someone who was born and raised in Worthing it had been a while since I’d been back to its museum (I even worked there for a summer many years ago). They had a new exhibition with some Roman finds but there was plenty else to see. It’s free and there’s a great variety of displays, from the Iron Age through to their costume exhibition which includes items from the 17th century to the modern. Obviously I was drawn to the ealier pieces but there was something which dated to the 14th century which did surprise me. Here are some of the items.
The Bramber Hoard.
In 1981 a number of objects were found at Clay’s Field during the construction of an artificial lake. These were dated from 900BC-700BC and consisted of an array of knives and spear points. These still look like they could do a job. Nasty!
Roman coins from a Romano-British farm.
These were found on a small farm near Washington – they date to between 32 BC and AD 135. That’s quite a collection, here are a few. I’m waiting on some help identifying these – when I know more I’ll be able to label them.
Roman burial items.
In the 1960s a resident of Crabtree lane was digging a pond in his back garden and came across a selection of items from a burial. These date to the second or perhaps late 3rd century AD. The main object, a glass bottle, originally contained the cremated remains of an individual. The items, such as the brooches, a ring and a greenstone makeup palette suggest that this was the items belonged to a young woman. The makeup palette even has a worn area on the centre. If you are wondering where the cremated remains are, well apparently these were in the glass bottle but were emptied out by the person who was digging the pond.
The Highdown goblet
This glass piece was made in Egypt around AD 400 and the central image is of a dog chasing hares. It’s not easy to make out but around the neck there’s an inscription in Greek which translates as ‘Use me and good health to you’. It wasn’t unusual for drinking vessels or personal items to carry such messages (read here for another example). Again this proves how connected trade and people were.
More Roman coins!
The Culver Archaeology Project (CAP) has been undertaking work and had an exhibition which I caught the end of. There were a number of items found at a villa including 355 Roman coins which date over 5 centuries. Here are a few.
The first is a denarius dating to 88 BC and features the head of Mutinus Titinus (a phallic marriage deity). The other side has good old pegasus!
The next one is another denarius but this time celebrating a victory over King Aretas of Nabatea (a kingdom in Arabia and the southern Levant). It was issued by M. Aemilius Scarus and Publius Plautius Hypsaeus. Each had been elected as a curile aedile and served together in 58 BC when they issued this coin to celebrate the surrender of the King. On this side you can make out Jupiter driving a chariot. The other side featured King Aretas kneeling beside a camel.
You may have heard of Pompey the Great, well here’s a rare denarius featuring his profile and also a lituus (a crooked wand). This was something used by augurs to mark out a space in the sky for ritual purposes. It dates between 42-40 BC and so after Pompey’s death. It was most likely issued by his son, Sextus.
