• Date: 3rd century AD
• Material: Sandstone
• Findspot: Carrawburgh bath-house

This uninscribed gravestone belongs to a Roman standard bearer or vexillarius. It depicts a male figure holding a standard with a bull on top in his right hand and a small shield in his left hand. He is bare-headed with short hair and wears a belted tunic with a gladius (a short sword used by infantry soldiers) on his left hip. The vexillarius carried the vexillum, a square flag with a fringed lower edge suspended from a crossbar. It was used to give signals in the field.

• Date: 2nd to 3rd century AD
• Material: Sandstone
• Findspot: North side of the fort

Aesculapius was the god of healing and Minerva, usually associated with crafts and trade guilds, is depicted here in her role as a goddess of healing. Only Aesculapius’ feet and staff survive, but he can be identified from his staff, which has a snake wound around it. A snake-entwined staff is still often used as a symbol for pharmacies and doctors today.

Minerva wears a crested helmet and a cloak, and a gorgon is depicted on her chest plate. An oval shield peeks out from behind her and she holds a spear in her left hand, while her right hand makes a gesture to ward off evil.

• Date: AD 120s
• Material: Sandstone
• Findspot: Between the west gate and the south-west corner of the fort

Stones like these were built into Hadrian’s Wall by the soldiers who constructed it. They record the names of the units who worked on each section and are an important piece of evidence helping us to understand how building the wall was organised.

This example reads ‘c[enturia] Thrupo/niana/ p[edes] XXIIII’ which means ‘The Thruponian century [built] 24 feet’. Thrupo is a German name, and is probably the name of the centurion in charge of the soldiers who inscribed the stone.

• Date: 3rd century AD
• Material: Sandstone
• Findspot: Centre of the fort (reused)

Genius means ‘spirit’, and the Genius Loci was the protective spirit of a place. Perhaps the soldiers who dedicated this altar didn’t know if there was a specific god who looked after the area of Carrawburgh, but still wanted to be protected.

The inscription reads ‘Genio / hu[i]us lo/ci Texand[ri] / et Suue[uae] / uex[illarii] cohor[tis] / II Neruior/um’, which means ‘To the spirit of this place the Texandri and Suvevae, members of a detachment from the Second Cohort of Nervians, [set this up]’.

We don’t know who the Texandri and Suvevae were, but perhaps they were groups who had come from a certain part of the empire and still linked themselves to their homeland. The Second Cohort of Nervians was originally recruited from the Nervii tribe, who came from the area around Brussels, in northern Belgium.

• Date: 2nd to 3rd century AD
• Material: Copper alloy

This copper-alloy hand from a life-size statue was found by John Clayton in the 1870s. Only the fingers and knuckles are original – the rest of the hand is painted plaster. Some traces of the original gilding remain and the detail of the casting is still sharp.

Fragments of metal statues are rare, as they were melted down for reuse when they were no longer wanted. Statues of this quality and size would only be of emperors, or occasionally deities.

• Date: 2nd century AD
• Material: Ceramic

This fragment of a tegula or roof tile is stamped LEG VI V, an abbreviation of Legio VI Victrix, meaning ‘the victorious 6th Legion’. A tegula was a standard flat roof tile used together with curved imbrex tiles to create a watertight roof.

• Date: 2nd to 3rd century AD
• Material: Sandstone
• Findspot: Coventina’s Well

Of the 21 altars found in Coventina’s Well, 11 were not inscribed. This could mean either that they were waiting for an inscription to be carved when worshippers bought them ‘off the shelf’, or that their dedication would have been painted on rather than inscribed, and has therefore subsequently been lost. The uninscribed altars vary in design and quality, but are all relatively small, around 25–30 centimetres tall.

• Date: 2nd to 3rd century AD
• Material: Sandstone
• Findspot: Coventina’s Well

This is one of only two possible images of Coventina, a local water goddess. Here she is depicted reclining on a stream bank. She holds a plant in one hand and rests on a jug from which water is flowing.

The dedication reads ‘Deae /Couuentinae / T[itus] D[…] Cosconia/nus pr[aefectus] coh[ortis] / I Bat[auroum] l[ibens] m[erito]’, which translates as ‘To the goddess Coventina, Titus D[…] Cosconianus, prefect of the First Cohort of Batavians, willingly and deservedly [fulfilled] his vow’.

• Date: 2nd to 3rd century AD
• Material: Ceramic
• Findspot: Coventina’s Well

These incense burners are made from rough clay normally used for tiles. They are highly decorated and inscribed with dedications but have a home-made feel to them in their design and finish. The lettering is uneven, and almost crude on one example, with the name of Coventina spelt differently on each one (which happens on some of the stone altars too). These would have been a less expensive offering to Coventina than a stone altar, so allowing devotees with less income to participate in her worship.

When the thuribles were discovered, how to decipher the inscriptions became the subject of much discussion. John Clayton, who found them, conducted a public debate via the letters section of the Newcastle papers with a Liverpool antiquarian, which became rather heated.

• Date: mid 2nd century AD
• Material: Ceramic
• Findspot: Coventina’s Well

Mortaria were staples of every Roman kitchen, and would have been used for grinding spices and making sauces. This cream-coloured example has been so well used that a hole has developed in the base. Perhaps it was deposited in the well because it was no longer useful.

The green staining is from some of the 16,000 coins found in the well, which had corroded. Staining can be seen on some of the altars in the museum too.

• Date: 2nd century AD
• Material: Copper alloy and enamel
• Findspot: Coventina’s Well

This brooch takes the form of a cantering deer or stag. The shape is stylised with crescent-shaped antlers and the eyes are picked out in red enamel. On the body, four copper-alloy rings are raised through the red enamel as decoration. The hinged pin is missing from the reverse.

Zoomorphic brooches like this are thought to have had meaning, rather than just being aesthetically pleasing. The deer was associated with the goddess of hunting, Diana, so perhaps the wearer wanted to associate themselves with her.

• Date: Early Bronze Age, c.2000–1750 BC
• Material: Coniston grit
• Findspot: Coventina’s Well

Prehistoric items have been found in other votive Roman deposits across Britain. Even if Romano-British people did not know how old these items from an earlier era were, they saw them as special, and as such, worthy of being offered to a deity.