Ashton No. 1

Results: 1 records

INFORMATION

Font ID: 07641ASH
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 4th century (?), Early Christian / Anglo-Roman
Workshop/Group/Artisan: lead tank
Cognate Fonts: [cf. FontNotes]
Church / Chapel Name: [not in a church]
Font Location in Church: [unknown]
Site Location: Northamptonshire, East Midlands, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: [not known which Ashton this refers to]
Town/City Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashton,_North_Northamptonshire
Font Notes:
Edwards et al. (2002) note the discovery in 1999 "of a decorated lead tank buried in the ditch adjacent to the bath-house and sealed by a deposit of roofing tiles. A chi-rho design in raised cable on the lead tank closely parallels the fourth century tank found in 1976 twenty kilometres to the east at Ashton, Northants." Reported in Petts (2003) as a baptism lead tank found in a well. The online catalogue "The Gods and Goddesses of Roman Britain" [www.bedoyere.freeserve.co.uk/Rbgods.htm] has this font with a reference to RIB2416,13 [i.e. Collingwood and Wright, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, 1995 c1956, v.1], as bearing the letters XP [chi rho], the emblem of Christ. Listed in Taylor ([2006?]) in a group of Roman decorated tanks discovered in the East Midlands (Walesby, Bishop Norton, Caistor, Brough, Thorpe by Newark and Rushton). Petts cites C.J. Guy's "The lead tank from Ashton", in Durobrivae 5 (1977): 6-9, and J. Hadman & S. Uppex' "Ashton", in Durobrivae 5 (1997): 8, as source. Mention as a decorated lead tank in Jeremy Taylor's "An Archaeological Resource Assessment of Roman Northamptonshire" [source: www.le.ac.uk/ar/pdf_files/24nhrom.pdf] [NB: there appear to be two lead-tank fragments found in this locality -- to be completed]

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: metal, lead
Font Shape: round?
Basin Interior Shape: round?
Basin Exterior Shape: round?

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: Greek
Inscription Text: "XP" [chi rho]
Inscription Notes: The monogram of Christ
Inscription Source: [cf. FontNotes]

REFERENCES

  • Edwards, Howell G.M., "Romano-British wall-painting fragments: a spectroscopic analysis", 127, The Analyst (The Royal Society of Chemistry), 2002, pp. 277-281; p. 277-278
  • Petts, David, "Votive Deposits and Christian Practice in Late Roman Britain", The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300, York: York Medieval Press, 2003, p. 110
  • Taylor, Jeremy, "An Archaeological Resource Assessment and Research Agenda for the Roman Period in the East Midlands [draft research agenda]", [2006?]