Water Newton treasure
In the Water Newton Treasure is a collection of liturgical metal objects from the fourth century. BC. It was founded in 1975 by accident while plowing near Water Newton , the ancient Durobrivae in the county of Cambridgeshire ( England ), found.
The treasure consists of nine silver vessels , some plaques and a gold disc. Some of the objects were badly damaged by the plow . Numerous objects in the treasure bear the Chi Rho symbol (X and P), which was a popular Christian symbol, especially in late antiquity . Accordingly, the silver objects were probably liturgical objects, the earliest known Christian of their kind from Britain .
Two of the cups and a plaque bear longer Latin inscriptions. An inscription on a cup reads: I, Publianus, give you a holy shrine, trust in you, O Lord . The other inscriptions name three people: Amcilla, Innocentia and Viventia. The individual objects in the treasure probably come from different workshops and were not made at the same time.
The treasure may have been hidden during persecution of Christians, or more likely during times of war. It is now in the British Museum .
Objects of treasure
literature
- KS Painter: The Water Newton Silver: votive or liturgical? In: Journal of the British Archa. -1, 152 (1999), pp. 1-23.