Roman bowl on foot

The Roman bronze bowl on a stand, with a cylindrical body and the wide outward curved edge is covered with silver on the inside. On the bottom, there is an inscription PRIMVS. Bronze bowls of this type are rarely found in the European Barbaricum. In the literature, they are sometimes called the “Grąbczyn type” bowls. They were probably produced in the Rhineland bronze workshops. The bowl was an element of furnishings of an inhumation burial discovered during the excavation of sand in Grąbczyn in 1928. The grave also contained another imported bronze vessel and glass beads, which were the remains of a necklace. Only the bowl has survived to the present day; the other objects are missing. An iron “spade” is mentioned in some publications, but its connection with the other grave furnishings is very doubtful. The bronze bowl was in a private collection until 1930. It is dated to the late Roman period, the middle of the 3rd century. The burial in which it was found, as it can be presumed from the grave goods, contained the remains of a woman of the Wielbark culture.

Bartłomiej Rogalski