3. 9. 2010 Unique Roman lantern

Eleven years ago a young prospector made an interesting find in Suffolk, England, where many rare artefacts have been found in the past. Twenty-one-year-old Danny Mills discovered a leaking Roman lantern in September 2010.

The youngster discovered the lantern during one of his metal detecting walks. Searching for metal objects was his hobby. Fortune smiled on him in September eleven years ago when he found a bronze Roman lantern underground. It was almost intact.

The searcher behaved in an exemplary manner and reported the find to local archaeologists. The owner of the field where the artefact was found subsequently donated the lantern to the regional museum. According to experts, the bronze lantern dates from between the first and third centuries AD.

The lantern was already pretty battered, but it has been restored and put on display at the museum in Ipswich. "This is a very rare find. The chains on which the lamp was suspended still look and move as if they are only a few years old. They are not corroded," said Emma Hogarth, from Colchester and Ipswich Museums.

She added that it is a beautiful example of craftsmanship. In the UK, similar artefacts are very rare. London's British Museum only owns fragments of similar finds. A similar lantern was previously discovered in Pompeii in southern Italy.

Hogarth also mentioned how the lamp "worked". The wick was apparently dipped in olive oil. The lamp appeared in an episode of the BBC series Digging for Britain.

Suffolk is indeed rich in finds. In fact, there were Roman villages there in the past. Experts believe the bronze lantern may have been used by one of the wealthy landowners when they returned home from their farm buildings at night.

Twelve years ago, for example, mechanic Michale Dark discovered over seven hundred gold coins in Suffolk. The Suffolk treasure was in a pit dug at the edge of a ditch. Archaeologists later discovered more coins. The hoard now numbered 824 pieces.

We wrote about it here: The Suffolk Gold Coins

Sources: www.bbc.com, www.dailymail.com, www.ceskatelevize.cz