Here’s a picture of one of the more fascinating items James recently examined during our visit to the Museum of Somerset in Taunton.
This tankard was found near to two other Late Roman vessels – a small pedestal pewter bowl and bronze bowl – in an area of Shapwick Heath in Somerset by a peat worker in the late 1930s. Three other hoards were also discovered in the area around the same time by other peat workers, and we’ll be telling you more about the objects from these hoards in future blog posts. Though the hoard has been assigned a late fourth century date by scholars, the date of the tankard is uncertain and its date ranges from the Late Iron Age to Late Roman period.
The tankard is made from wood and if you look closely at the base of the tankard in image below, you can see the thirteen wide wooden staves around the base. A copper-alloy sheet (sheathing) is wrapped around these staves and the handle has been carefully placed where the ends of the sheet meet. The tankard was likely made by a cooper, a type of craftsperson who would make wooden vessels held together with wooden or metal hoops such as casks, barrels and buckets. There is some wear to the copper sheathing, and we are continuing our analysis of the tankard and the other objects to shed light on their life history.
