CIMRM 851

TNMM 1271 ↔ CIMRM 851

From the other finds, for an extensive report of which we refer to the publication of Richmond-Gillam, 62ff, we mention here: 1) A number of vessels, which "were evidently part of the furnishings of the Mithraeum. Some were containers for votive offerings, others were found near where they would seem to have been used in sacred ceremonies" (cups; cooking- pots; platters; mortaria; jars). 296 BRITANNIA 2) Iron objects: altar-shovel. (ct. No. 480, 4), the bowl of which "contains some carbonaceous material , which has the properties of pine-cone charcoal"; thatch hook; mounting; candlestick (cf. No. 482, 6; 8). 3) Skulls and bones of domestic fowl from a ritual deposit below the altars of I , , I ... .J '" :;c <> uJ '" :: a: '" o CD ... z L ___________ _ )N 10 5 0 10 20 fEET __________ ________ Fig. 224. Period III. From the ante-room (Phase IIA) and from the nave (Period III) bones of ox, sheep or goat and pig (ct. No. 481). 4) "The make-up of the pavement in front of the altars contained an illegible denarius of the Severan age; on the flooring itself lay slightly worn coins of Victorinus (A.D. 268- 270), Claudius II (A.D. 268-270) and Tetricus (A.D. 270-273) and a fresh toUis of Maximianus I (296-308). The most im- portant coin is the last, which associates this reconstruction with the third structural period on Hadrian's Wall, dated to A.D. 297-367. During the earli- est part of this period the worn third-century radiate coins were still circulating in abundance. But the total absence of Constantinian issues suggests that the Mithraeum did not remain in use far into the century."