Staffordshire Moorlands Pan



The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan — sometimes known as the Ilam Pan — is a 2nd-century AD enamelled bronze trulla with an inscription relating to the forts of Hadrian's Wall. It was found in June 2003 in Ilam parish, Staffordshire, by metal-detectorists, and, in 2005, was bought jointly by the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle, the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent and London's British Museum, with the help of a grant of £112,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is a find of great national and international significance. The pan rotates between a number of locations, including the joint owning museums and another museum on Hadrian's Wall.

Description
The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan, although lacking its handle and base, is an extremely well preserved enamelled and inscribed bronze (strictly speaking, "copper alloy") vessel for cooking and serving food, decorated in a Celtic style. (The Celtic peoples of the Roman period made more use of enamel on metal than other parts of the Empire.) It weighs 132.5 g, and is 47 mm high with a maximum diameter of 94 mm, and is 54 mm around the outside of the base.

The decoration consists of "eight roundels, with eight pairs of intervening hollow-sided triangles. Each roundel encloses a swirling six-armed whirligig centred on a three-petalled device inlaid with red, blue, turquoise and yellow-coloured enamel." It has been suggested that in addition to its functional role it may have been a 'souvenir' of Hadrian's Wall, made for a soldier who had served there. It may have been made as a decorative pan and was then customised by having an inscription added later (using an engraved, rather than relief-cast, inscription as in other enamelled objects of this type).

The inscription round the rim is engraved and then filled with enamel. It names forts on the wall: MAIS (Bowness-on-Solway), COGGABATA (Drumburgh), VXELODVNVM (Stanwix), CAMMOGLANNA (Castlesteads). The final part: RIGORE VALI AELI DRACONIS, is more elusive in meaning, but refers to the wall VALI, and probably a soldier DRACO. AELI may be part of his name, but was also Hadrian's family name, so may go with VALI, indicating that the Romans called the wall the "Aelian Wall".

There are other comparable trulli, and two with inscriptions relating to the wall; the inscription means this piece was almost certainly manufactured locally. Judging by these other finds, the handle would have been flat, with enamel decoration on the upper surface. The Rudge Cup has a different shape, but also names forts on the wall (see that article for the "Amiens Skillet", another vessel with inscribed fort names).