Cup from the Water Newton treasure
Roman Britain, 4th century AD
Water Newton, Cambridgeshire
The earliest Christian silver yet found in the Roman
Empire
This cup is part of a hoard of silver vessels and plaques which
forms the earliest group of Christian liturgical silver yet found
in the Roman Empire. It was discovered in a recently ploughed field
at Water Newton, Cambridgeshire, the Roman town of Durobrivae, in
February 1975. The hoard was much damaged by the plough. It
consists of nine vessels, a number of silver votive plaques, and a
gold disc.
Though the form of this handled cup, or cantharus,
resembles later Christian chalices, we cannot make any assumptions
about the function of the vessel. It has no inscriptions. However,
many of the objects in the hoard bear the monogram formed by the
Greek letters chi (X) and rho (P), the first two letters of
Christ's name, a symbol commonly used by early Christians. Two
bowls and one plaque have longer inscriptions in Latin. One of
these, on a bowl, can be translated as 'I, Publianus, honour your
sacred shrine, trusting in you, 0 Lord.' Other inscriptions give
the names of three female dedicators: Amcilla, Innocentia and
Viventia, who must also have belonged to the congregation.
Individual pieces in the treasure were probably made at
different times and in different places, and it is impossible to
establish accurately the date at which they were hidden. The
treasure may have been hidden in response to specific persecution
of Christians or to more general political instability.
K.S. Painter, 'The Water Newton Silver: votive or liturgical?', Journal of the British Archa-1, 152 (1999), pp. 1-23
K.S. Painter, The Water Newton early Christi (London, The British Museum Press, 1977)