A Roman Glass Bowl Engraved with a Hunting Motif from a Late Roman Iron Age Grave

Abstract

A Roman Glass Bowl Engraved with a Hunting Motif from a Late Roman Iron Age Grave

In 1977-78, Silkeborg Museum excavated a grave from the Late Roman Iron Age at the farm of Rasmus Nielsen, Dalagergård, at Sønder Vissing in Central Jutland (Sønder Vissing parish, Århus county) (1). The site of the grave was at the edge of a steep slope by a brook. The grave, which lacks a barrow, was oriented lengthwise east-west, and above ground level it measured 2.65 m in length and 1.75 m in width. The bottom of the grave was 65 cm beneath the plough layer. The long sides of the grave sloped inward to a ledge, also slightly sloping, 15-20 cm above the bottom level. The ledge was c. 30 cm wide to the north and c. 38 cm wide to the south (fig. 6). The side surfaces of the grave were closely packed with large stones, above which the grave space was filled with the soil, brown sand (2).

Farthest down in the northwest corner of the grave were the mouldered remains of the coffin, and the objects were found at this level. All the objects, except for the vessel (AN) which was fragmented, were found in situ. The fibula (AK) (fig. 2) found with preserved textile fragments (3) lay in the middle of the west end of the grave. At this same end, placed against the south side, a wooden bucket (AL) was found, made of narrow staves held together by wide bronze bands and furnished with two loops in which there were two small rings. Immediately east of the wooden bucket was the clay vessel (AN) (fig. 3) which had been smashed by a disturbance (4) in the centre of the grave; this disturbance cannot be dated. At the northwest corner of the grave were 34 game pieces (fig. 7). Sixteen of these pieces were made of light-green glass, two pieces were of white glass, and nine were of black and bluish-black glass. There were also two black polished potsherds and five round stones, all of which seemed to be parts of the game. The pieces were not arranged according to colour or material, and their positions indicate that they had been placed along the sides of the grave or on the lid of the coffin.

The glass bowl (Y) was found at the middle of the east end of the grave. It was so fragmented that it was dug out in a block (5) and excavated at the School of Conservation by the conservation technician Knud Botfeldt (6). The glass bowl was impossible to reassemble, but the fragments could be taken out of the block and cleaned (fig. 8). After a more detailed analysis, (7) (8) (9) of the back of the glass bowl at Silkeborg Museum, it was determined conclusively that the bowl had originally had the shape of a segment of a sphere, and was engraved (10) (11) (14) with a hunting motif on the back (fig. 9). This hunting scene shows a rider with a fluttering cape hunting a stag in whose shoulder a spear or a lance is stuck. The stag is surrounded by two baying dogs (fig. 10). On both sides of the action are stylized trees. There is no inscription. Similar glass bowls, of which about 30 (12) (13) have been found -some with similar hunting motifs (fig. 12), some with pagan and Christian religious motifs- seem to originate in Cologne, to judge by the find density (fig. 13). Until now, all the bowls have been found within the region of the Roman provinces, including England. The Dalagergård bowl is the first one found in the Germanic region.

Dating

The clay vessels in the grave (22) and the fibula, which is of the type "Funen Nydam fibula" (18) (19) date the grave to E. Albrectsen's period III (20) on the basis of the Late Roman Iron Age material on Funen, and in fig. 14 it is seen to correspond to Ulla Lund Hansen's period C3, and Godlowski's period C3. In the absolute chronology, E. Albrectsen dates period 3 to 325-400 AD, and after the investigations of Stig Jensen (16) and others, the Nydam fibula horizon corresponds to the period 350-400 AD (21).

Very few of the total of 30 specimens or fragments of specimens found can be dated by means of a find combination. The grave at Krefeld-Gellep (23) (fig. 15) contained, along with a bowl with a pagan motif (Dionysos with two satyrs), a number of pottery vessels, a terra sigilata bowl, a glass drinking-horn, a glass pitcher, and two glass beakers -as well as a coin, a sesterce, which was so worn that it must have already been quite old when. deposited. This coin is from the time of Antonius Pius (138-161 AD). The total material in the Krefeld-Gellep grave shows that the grave cannot be earlier than the middle of the fourth century AD.

The grave at Trier, which contained yet another bowl with a pagan motif (the fight between Hercules and the giant Antaeus) also contained a glass drinking horn, four glass bottles, two glass beakers, five pieces of pottery, and a newly-minted little coin struck in Trier (320-324 AD).

The grave from the cemetery near St. Martin's Church (25) at Boulogne included four coins which can be dated to 275-276 AD, but the motif (fig. 16) on the bowl -Abraham and Isaac- is a Christian one, which is emphasized by the Chi-Rho symbol. Thus this bowl must be considerably later than the coins, as Christianity was first officially permitted by the emperor Constantine the Great in 313. J.B. Harden dates the bowls with a Christian motif to the period 320-330 AD, allowing for a certain time margin corresponding to the working years for one or more contemporary glass engravers (26).

The bowl from Cologne was found together with an Orpheus bowl of terra sigilata which is tentatively dated to about 300 AD (27).

The engraved glass fragments from Great Staughton in Huntshire were found in a house whose latest coin is dated to 361 AD (28).

On the basis of these datings, that of the Trier grave and the find of the Christian bowl from the cemetery near St. Martin's Church, together with the hunting bowl from Cologne, it seems that the bowls were made in the first half of the fourth century. Whether they were also made in the second half of this century is not known for certain. The fact that they are found in graves, for example Krefeld-Gellep and Dalagergård, from the second half of the fourth century does not contradict this date of manufacture, when the period of use is taken into consideration. For the sake of completeness, it can be mentioned that the spherical-segment-shaped bowls cannot have been made after the fourth century, as the glass industry at Cologne seems to have disappeared at this time.

Christian Fischer