RAT-member finds 300 AD chape at Flag Fen event

[Robert Vermaat]

Dan Shadrake, our fellow member and founder of the Late Roman re-enactment group Britannia, managed to combine hobby and research: while doing a slow-motion battle he found a real artefact!

Here’s the article from Peterborough Today:
http://www.peterboroughnow.co.uk/viewar ... ionid=4419


Mike Webber, Learning Officer and Archaeologist with the chape.

History unearthed during Fen battle


By Kirsty Nicolson
[email protected]
HE was practising for a mock Roman battle when part-time centurion Dan Shadrake made an amazing discovery that could re-write history.
By a remarkable coincidence, what Dan thought was a watch lying in the ancient soil at the city's Flag Fen Bronze Age Centre, could well be a rare artefact from the days when the real Roman legions had a settlement in what is now Peterborough.

The find, which has excited archaeologists at the renowned site, came about when Dan (40), who works for History Today magazine and is the founder of the Britannia Re-enactment Group, was ducking a swinging axe wielded by 12-year-old Joseph Purcell. As Dan looked down, he spotted what looked like a pocket watch lying in a pile of soil.

But it seems that the metal disc is, in fact, a Roman chape – a disc-shaped device the Romans used to cap their scabbards and protect the points of their swords. If this is the case, it could mean Flag Fen was used for Roman worship and ritual until a much later date than previously thought.

Dan and Joseph were warming up to entertain visitors at a battle re-enactment last weekend when they made the find.

Dan said: "We were just setting up the Roman tents and having a slow motion fight when I spotted it. But, it soon became apparent that it was not a watch and I thought it may be a chape, only because I wear a replica one myself.

"My friends were all laughing at me and said I had planted it there, but it was a genuine find."

Bosses at Flag Fen are waiting for experts to get back to them to confirm the artefact is indeed a Roman chape.

Learning officer and archaeologist Mike Webber said: "We are quite excited because this certainly looks like a chape.

"The shape of these things changes throughout the ages and this is typical of one from Roman times. We are looking at something which could potentially change what we know about the site."

Mr Webber said the item could be dated to around 300 AD and would suggest the Romans may have taken part in rituals at the site, as well as Celts.

It also indicates that the site may have been used for 800 or so years more than previously thought.

Joseph's mum Nicky, from Basildon, Essex, said: "When Joseph first saw it laying in the ground,
he thought it may have been an ocarina, which is a musical instrument. However, he has been doing re-enactments for about a year now and he realised there was more to it than it seemed."

[Memmia]

WOW! What an amazing find in equally amazing circumstances! hock:

I bet he couldn't believe it

[Robert Vermaat]

I bet he couldn't believe it

His men couldn't - they said he probably planted it. :wink:

[aitor iriarte]

Almost a fairy tale, Robert, many thanks!
BTW, I cannot see the pic even on the original site :?

Aitor

[Et tu brute]

No, me neither, but still, an excellent find!

[Robert Vermaat]

No problem for me, I see all of them, here as well as at work..

[Et tu brute]

Hmm, perhaps my virus protection, or a firewall?

[aitor iriarte]

I can see it now!
(It's a really tiny pic )

Aitor

[Robert Vermaat]

Latest developments are that it has been looked at by Francis Pryor looked and several Cambridge archaeologists... verdict...

Roman 300-400AD & VERY rare!

Dan told me

"I'm still half expecting it to be a horse brass or clock pendulum that's only a couple of hundred years old... but it is very 'chape like'

Sadly it was found in an earth bank that's apparently only been there a few years as it's 'spoil' that may have been dredged out of a ditch or lake, or topsoil from an excavation, so it's very hard to put into exact context.

There is a Roman road nearby (about 30 yards north), and chatting to my archaeologist mate Iain he say that the Fens are full of Roman stuff, but that it's been washed back and forth thanks to years of flooding and drainage... so we may never know if it's connected to any other items out there in the dykes & marshes. "

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

A lucky man!

At Archeon 2005 i have found a 9 mm LUGER cartridge at the sand of the reconstructed arena... Well, the archeologists never have rest! :lol: