Adaptation of Mike Collins, English Heritage, Hadrian's Wall Archaeologist, 'Hadrian's Wall News' Issue 29 September 2006
Rudge Cup: So, the full translation could be read as : Mais, Coggabata, Uxelodunum, Cambloganna from the course of the frontier. [ By the hand ] of Aelius Draco. This of course is an early interpretation of the inscription and time may tell a slightly different story but this one is the best that fits its context so far. This find could well have been missed on the day it was found as the detectorists who made the find said although it was a nice dry day and the ground was dry they had decide to pack up for the day. Whilst packing up Kevin, who apparently 'digs up anything', heard one of his colleague's detector's give a strong signal and decide to leave the object because it was too big, maybe a coke can or something similar, and couldn't resist going over himself to investigate. Call it intuition or just plain gutsiness but are we glad he did? I bet! About one foot below the surface and sticking out from a block of limestone he saw the rim of the pan. They knew immediately after cleaning the pan so easily from the soil covering it that they had a second century Roman bowl. These guys like to preserve history and finds and immediately contacted the relevant people and the find quickly started making these folk very excitable. The pan itself was made apparently in three separate parts. The pan itself, of course, the handle and the base. Both of the latter are now missing. The state of the pan itself is remarkable in its preservation as lots of the enamel, coloured, is still in place. The colours used were blue, turquoise, yellow, red and possibly purple. The original owner of the pan could have been a commander of the Roman Army and could well have had this object made upon his retirement as a souvenir of his service on the Wall. It is unknown as to how the pan found its way to Staffordshire. Unless, of course, the commander retired there? Staffordshire Pan: A significant discovery in Staffordshire was made by metal detectorists during 2003 and has been hailed as being extremely important in terms of the names of the forts along the west coast of Hadrian's Wall. The Staffordshire Pan ( photograph right -- reproduced from the 'News from Hadrian's Wall Newsletter' Issue 21 with permission. Image below right is that of the Rudge Cup from the same publication ) was found by Kevin Blackburn and dates to the 2nd century. It was found along with Roman coins, Anglo-Saxon and later medieval objects plus traces of buildings of unknown date. The pan is 90mm in diameter and has Celtic style decoration with inlaid roundels. The actual inscription in full is MAIS COGGABATA UXELODUNUM CAMBOGLANNA RIGORE VALI AELI DRACONIS. Bowness is listed as MAIS and there appears to be the correct name for Drumburgh-by-Sands, which was until now known as Congavata, but the pan has it as COGGABATA. The interesting inscription on the pan is that of RIGORE which seems to be the ablative form for the word Rigor which means among other things, 'straight line', 'course' or 'direction'. So the meaning could be 'from the course'. The word VALI does not exist but in antiquity it was known as Vallum along Hadrian's Wall. So this could mean 'of the frontier'. The name of AELI DRACONIS could mean [ by the hand -- or work ] of Aelius Draco.
