Unique Roman glass dish found at London grave site

Archaeologists have unearthed a Roman glass bowl, thought to be a unique find in the Western Roman Empire, at an ancient cemetery beyond the walls of the old city of London.The "millefiori" dish (a thousand flowers), believed to date from around the 2nd to 3rd century A.D., is a mosaic of hundreds of indented blue petals with white bordering.

"For it to have survived intact is amazing. In fact, it is unprecedented in the western Roman world," said Jenny Hall, curator of the Roman collection at the Museum of London.

"We are still checking out whether there are similar examples surviving in the eastern part of the empire, in ancient Alexandria for example, but it's the only one in the West," she told reporters.

Archaeologists said the dish was coloured bright red when it was first pulled from the earth, as the intricate design was imbedded in opaque red glass.The bright vermilion colour has slowly disappeared since excavation as the water-saturated glass dried out. The moisture had preserved the original colouring, but some of the pigment is still distinguishable around the rim. The artifact was found 2.5 to 3 meters (yards) down at a sprawling ancient cemetery in Aldgate, east London, just beyond the old city walls. Romans were required by law to bury their dead outside the city gates.It formed part of a cache of grave goods found close to a wooden container holding the ashes of a probably wealthy Roman citizen from the ancient imperial outpost of Londinium, now mostly hidden beneath modern-day London.

Other artifacts recovered with the bowl included ceramic pottery and glass flasks which once contained perfumed oil used to anoint the body. Guy Hunt, director of commercial archaeology services firm L-P: Archaeology who was in charge of the six-month dig at the site, said the cemetery covers a massive area. "No-one knows how big the cemetery really is. Some think it could be up to 16 hectares (40 acres), disappearing under roads and buildings," he said.Hunt said the section of the cemetery that was excavated originally sat under Victorian houses flattened during World War Two.

"It is a miracle of preservation."

The dish suppose to go on show at the Museum of London Docklands in the southeast of the British capital from the end of April.

(Reuters)

Carol Ann Duffy first female poet laureate

Carol Ann Duffy was named Britain's poet laureate on Friday, the first woman to hold the royal post in its 341-year history. The 53-year-old, born in Glasgow, Scotland, said she had thought `long and hard' about accepting the position, seen by some as a poisoned chalice due to the public scrutiny that comes with it.`I look on it as a recognition of the great women poets we have writing now,' Duffy told BBC Radio. "I've decided to accept it for that reason."

Poets Laureate are expected to compose poems to mark major state occasions and other national events. The post has been held by John Dryden, William Wordsworth and Ted Hughes. It used to be for life but Duffy, like her predecessor Andrew Motion, will hold it for 10 years.

Duffy had been in the running for the role in 1999, but lost out to Motion because of what British media reports said were concerns about how people would react to a lesbian laureate.

Duffy is probably best known for her 1999 collection `The World's Wife' in which she tells the stories of the women behind some of the leading men through history. Other highlights among her collections, many of which have won major awards, are `Standing Female Nude' (1985), `Mean Time' (1993), `Feminine Gospels' (2002) and `Rapture' (2005). Duffy also writes picture books for children and plays.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown called Duffy `a truly brilliant modern poet who has stretched our imaginations by putting the whole range of human experiences into lines that capture the emotions perfectly'.

The holder of the title receives 5,750 pounds ($8,600) a year. Duffy said she would give the fee to the Poetry Society. According to the Society, the laureate's original salary was 200 pounds per year plus a butt of canary wine. John Betjeman had the tradition revived in 1972 and today's laureate receives a barrel of sherry.

The new appointment is likely to reignite debate in literary circles over whether Britain really needs a Poet Laureate.

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