Antiquities Exhibits

The Mildenhall Treasure is a large hoard of 34 masterpieces of Roman silver tableware from the fourth century CE, and by far the most valuable Roman objects artistically and by weight of bullion in Britain. It was found at West Row, near Mildenhall, Suffolk, in 1942.  The treasure consists of silver tableware of types current in the 4th century, and was probably concealed at some time in that century. Most of the objects are comparatively large, and all are of very high-quality workmanship. The hoard consists of two large serving platters, two small decorated serving plates, a deep fluted bowl, a set of four large decorated bowls, two small decorated bowls, two small pedestalled dishes, a deep flanged bowl with a deep, domed cover, five small round ladles with dolphin-shaped handles, and eight long-handled spoons (cochlearia).   The Great Dish (also known as the Oceanus Dish or as the Neptune Dish, from the face of a sea-god at its centre), which was worked by chasing fro...

The central panel of this extraordinary mosaic depicts a scene from Classical mythology, the moment when Dionysos, the Greek god of wine, first sees his future wife, the Cretan princess Ariadne. It seems to have been a popular subject for floor mosaics in Syria during the third and fourth centuries C.E. One of the most compelling aspects of this mosaic is its apparent transformation from a purely pagan image to one with Christian overtones. At some point in the mosaic's later history, a bloody wound that recalls the right ribcage injury sustained by Christ at the hands of the Roman soldiers who crucified him was added to Dionysos's left side. Apparently at the same time the red wound was added to Dionysos's side, a flat, vessel-like object was placed in his right hand. The identification of the object is uncertain, but it may represent either a shallow bowl for wine, previously the province of Dionysos but which in Christian iconography represented the blood of Christ, or a...

When Istanbul was Constantinople - Ongoing. At the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada Floor mosaic of Artemis 400-500 CE Eastern Mediterranean. Image courtesy of the Royal Ontario Museum. The dedication of Constantinople (now Istanbul) by the Emperor Constantine I in 330 CE began a new phase in the history of the Roman Empire. Power gradually shifted towards the eastern Mediterranean, and a new empire emerged. The people of this empire thought of themselves as Roman, but later historians have called it the Byzantine Empire –  named after Byzantion, the original town at Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire was crucial for the early history of eastern Christianity. It was here that the Orthodox Church was founded and continues to flourish to this day. This gallery encompasses the centuries from the dedication of Constantinople, through the fall of the classical Roman empire and the Medieval Crusades, to its final conquest by the Ottoman Turks. The exceptional objects...