Romans in Somerset

What a most interesting evening! We learned that the Romans clearly made a beeline for the south west to make use of the lead in our hills, which has been found as far away as Herculaneum. They have been able to trace the transport routes by finding some of the lead 'pigs' in river beds, either through them falling overboard or because the boats sank. The 'pigs' were each stamped with the emporer's name and weighed around 70kgs, so it is possible to date them. It was fascinating to see the tables showing how widespread the pollution was during the Roman period - evidence drawn from glacier samples and from teeth! The pollution then fell until the industrial revolution in the middle of the 1700s, when it reached only slightly higher levels. We also saw evidence of Roman writing! Some on wooden tablets, one of which was an invitation to a birthday party! (Nothing we do today is new! I wonder if they called them 'iPines'?) most fascinating were the lead 'curses' which had been found in the spring at the Roman Baths in Bath. These had been thrown into the spring, begging the gods to curse the person who had, for example stolen something. One was written in Latin but each word was written backwards. Another was written using Latin letters but making words which no one has been able to understand. It is thought that it may be an example of the Celtic language spoken at the time; possibly the only written record of it. When I spoke to Stephen Clewes afterwards he told me that another curse, this one to Neptune, was found on the sea shore! (Clearly Neptune has thought about it and returned it to us!) These are particularly rare and the evidence of such written curses has only been found in the western part of the Roman Empire, and specifically in the south west of England.

We enjoyed our refreshments and then all went home to get out the mixing bowl and put the oven on! Look out the National Grid for the next few days! The kitchens of Leigh on Mendip will be hard pressed, preparing for the WI produce stall on Saturday!