Pieces of a silver basin

These three pieces of a silver basin were found at Traprain Law in East Lothian. The basin was part of a hoard containing over 150 silver objects, mainly tableware, buried between 410 and 425 AD. Most of the objects were fragmentary.

On the basin's rim are gilded letters in roundels, part of an obscure inscription. The base of the bowl has repoussé bosses which surrounded a now lost feature. The fluting on the bowls is parallelled on other finds of late Roman silver from Britain.

Large quantities of silver were available in the late Roman empire. A number of hoards from the late 4th and early 5th century provide a good indication of tablewares and jewellery current at the time, illustrating the high level of Roman craftsmanship.

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