# The Water Newton Treasure > Unknown Romano-British silversmith(s); silver donated by named and unnamed members of a Christian congregation at or near Durobrivae - Second half of the 4th century to the early 5th century AD > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/water-newton-donors/water-newton-treasure-british-museum/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-28 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Unknown Romano-British silversmith(s); silver donated by named and unnamed members of a Christian congregation at or near Durobrivae - **Date:** Second half of the 4th century to the early 5th century AD - **Medium:** Silver (hammered, repousse, incised and partly gilded sheet and vessels) and gold (one sheet disc) - **Dimensions:** A hoard of 27 objects of varying size, from votive plaques a few centimetres across to the large flat dish in which the group was found; see technical block for key vessel measurements - **Object type:** Silver - **Period:** Roman Britain, Late Roman (4th - early 5th century AD) - **Current location:** The British Museum, London (Room 49, Roman Britain gallery). A group of the objects was lent to Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery for the exhibition Peterborough Treasures: Coming Home, on display there until January 2019; replicas are otherwise shown at Peterborough Museum. - **Attribution:** unknown ## Summary Found by a metal detectorist in a Cambridgeshire field in February 1975, on the site of the Roman town of Durobrivae, the Water Newton Treasure is twenty-six silver objects and one gold disc: vessels, a strainer, and seventeen small votive plaques, several bearing the chi-rho monogram of Christ. Dated to the second half of the fourth century or the early fifth, it is, on current evidence, the earliest surviving group of Christian liturgical and votive silver known from anywhere in the Roman Empire.Two of its bowls carry named donor inscriptions, Publianus, who dedicated his gift directly to a sanctum altare, and Innocentia and Viventia, who gave jointly; a third donor, read as Amcilla or Anicilla, is named on one of the plaques. Whether the group furnished a communal church altar or belonged to individual Christians as private devotional silver remains an open, specialist debate, argued on both sides by named scholars and not resolved by the objects themselves. Acquired by the British Museum in the year of its discovery under the treasure trove law then in force, the treasure has remained in the Museum's collection since, and continues to generate active, peer-reviewed research fifty years on. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 350-c. 400-425** Individual Christian donors at or near Durobrivae, including Publianus, Innocentia, Viventia, and a fourth read as Amcilla (or Anicilla), plus unnamed others `[documented]` (manufacture and votive donation) The vessels and plaques were made and, on the inscriptions' own wording, individually donated to a Christian sacred use over what Charles Thomas has proposed was an extended period, possibly years or decades, rather than as a single gift. Only four donors are legible; most pieces in the group carry no name. - **-early 5th century (exact date unknown)** `[documented]` (concealment) The objects were found carefully packed in and around the treasure's large dish, evidence read as deliberate concealment rather than accidental loss. Whether the motive was hiding against a threat or a permanent votive deposit is disputed among specialists and not resolved here. - **early 5th century-1975** Unknown; the treasure remained buried and undisturbed `[unknown]` (gap) No record survives of what became of the person or people who concealed the treasure, or of why it was never recovered, for roughly fifteen hundred years. - **1975-02-1975** Alan Holmes (finder), reported to the Crown via the treasure trove process `[documented]` (discovery and treasure trove declaration) Found during ploughing in February 1975 near Durobrivae by metal detector user Alan Holmes, who kept the group together uncleaned; the local archaeologist John Peter Wild was brought in and recognised its significance. A coroner's inquest declared the find Treasure Trove under the pre-1996 English common law, vesting ownership in the Crown. The exact inquest date and the ex gratia reward figure reported in some secondary sources are not confirmed to this record's sourcing standard and are treated as open questions rather than stated as fact. - **1975-present** The British Museum, London `[documented]` (acquisition) Acquired by the British Museum in 1975, inv. 1975,1002.1-27. Normally displayed in Room 49 (Roman Britain gallery). A group of the objects was lent to Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery for the exhibition Peterborough Treasures: Coming Home, on display there until January 2019; replicas of the treasure are otherwise shown at Peterborough Museum on a continuing basis. ## Open questions - Did this group furnish a communal Christian altar, or was it private devotional silver belonging to one or more individual Christians? Named specialists hold both positions and the objects themselves do not settle it. - Why was the treasure buried, and why was it never recovered: concealment against a perceived threat, or a permanent votive deposit? Both readings remain current in the specialist literature on this specific hoard. - Where did the sanctuary or household this treasure served actually stand? Charles Thomas has proposed a re-purposed building at Durobrivae, tentatively a former temple, but no such building has been archaeologically identified. - Is the donor named on the votive plaque a person called Amcilla (or Anicilla), or is amcilla the common Latin noun ancilla, handmaid, used there as a self-description rather than a proper name? The primary catalogue records the ambiguity; it is not resolved in the sources consulted. - How many individual donors does the treasure as a whole represent? Only four are named or partly legible (Publianus, Innocentia, Viventia, and the donor read as Amcilla); the plain vessels and eight of the plaques carry no name at all. - What was the exact date of the 1975 treasure trove inquest, and what ex gratia reward was actually paid to the finder? Figures and dates given across secondary sources for this were not confirmed to this record's standard and are not stated as fact here. - What was the total weight of the assembled hoard? Individual vessel weights are recorded in the literature consulted; a combined total was not found. ## Sources - [1] Samaretz, Nicolas. "Altar Space in Late Antiquity: The Water Newton Treasure and the Construction of the Sacred Space." Eikon Imago 15, e98767 (2026), Masaryk University / University of Fribourg. - [2] Wikipedia, "Water Newton Treasure." Tertiary source, flagged for replacement with Kenneth S. Painter's 1977 catalogue where a library copy can be consulted directly. - [3] Peterborough Archaeology, "The Water Newton Treasure." - [4] Discover Peterborough, "The Water Newton Treasure: Roman Peterborough's Christian Silver." - [5] Fenland Heritage Network, "FenArch Talk - The Water Newton Treasure" (talk by Phil Hill, FRAG Site Officer, Oxford Archaeology East, 23 March 2022). - [6] Metal Detecting UK (detecting.org.uk), "The Water Newton Treasure." - [7] Valentine (Tartanplace), "Treasure Trove Law In England and Wales," for the pre-1996 common law regime under which the 1975 find was processed. - [8] Wikipedia, "Christianity in Roman Britain." Tertiary source, used for general context (Council of Arles, 314) rather than for any fact specific to this object. - [9] Wikipedia, "Lullingstone Roman Villa," for the display location of the site's chi-rho wall paintings. - [10] Wikimedia Commons, File:Water newton cantharus.jpg, description page (inventory, dimensions, licence and photographer credit). - [11] Wikimedia Commons, File:Silver vessel hanging.jpg, description page (category: Hanging bowls; licence and photographer credit). - [12] Wikimedia Commons, File:Vase 1.jpg, description page (licence and photographer credit). - [13] Wikimedia Commons, File:Head of vessel.jpg, description page (licence and photographer credit). - [14] Wikimedia Commons, File:Cup-text.jpg, description page (licence CC BY 3.0 and photographer credit). --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.