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A Roman miliarium from a private bath house in northern Gaul: from water technology to ritual offering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2016

Séverine Hurard ,
Luc Leconte ,
Aurélien Lefeuvre  and
Pascal Raymond
Séverine Hurard*
Affiliation:
UMR 7041 ArScan, Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques préventives, 36–38 avenue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier, 93120 La Courneuve, France
Luc Leconte
Affiliation:
UMR 6298 ArTeHis, Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques préventives, 36–38 avenue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier, 93120 La Courneuve, France
Aurélien Lefeuvre
Affiliation:
Service Départemental d'Archéologie du Val-d'Oise, rue Alexandre Prachay, 95310 Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, France
Pascal Raymond
Affiliation:
Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques préventives, 36–38 avenue Paul-Vaillant-Couturier, 93120 La Courneuve, France
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: severine.hurard@inrap.fr)
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Abstract

The rare discovery of a well-preserved miliarium—a water boiler—in a rural bath house in Gaul suggests that the technology of water supply had penetrated the remoter parts of the Roman world. Such boilers were frequently recycled for their valuable metal content. This example, by contrast, was buried close to where it once stood—perhaps in connection with the ritual deposit of complete animal carcasses around the bath house. The symbolic associations of the boiler are suggested by decorative elements including the mask of a bearded man, argued to represent Okeanos, a divine personification of the sea. The near-complete state of the boiler also provides new insight into the processes used in its manufacture from lead and copper alloys.

Keywords

FranceGaulRomanbath housewater boilerdepositionproductionlead
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 90 , Issue 354 , December 2016 , pp. 1562 - 1575
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016 

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