Roman lathe-turned porringer and ash bowl

Both pieces are in the Museum of London (MoLA), and were found within the Roman Upper Walbrook cemetery that lies beneath the Finsbury Circus area of the City of London.

The porringer was lathe turned from timber from a pollarded oak, which gives the beautiful effect from the myriad of small knots; it had warped badly since deposition and was illustrated as it would have appeared before warping (click on image to enlarge).

A sherd of this lathe turned ash bowl was found during excavations in 1987 by the then Department of Urban Archaeology of the MoL, a predecessor of MoLA (Museum of London Archaeology). It had been preserved by waterlogging beneath the early 20th century buildings.

The Upper Walbrook cemetery has been archaeologically investigated since the 19th century. Chiz Harward was Project Officer on recent major excavations by MoLA. A publication programme is now underway at MoLA which will incorporate some antiquarian findings as well as MoL excavations in a MoLA monograph.

The drawings were initially made in pencil, then scanned and finished in CorelDraw.