The Mildenhall Bacchic plate
- Gallery: Room 49
- Culture: Romano-British
- Date: 4thC
- Object type: plate
- Materials: silver
- Museum number: 1946,1007.2
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
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About this object
This is The Mildenhall Bacchic plate, a small, richly decorated silver plate with a beaded rim holding 65 tiny beads. On its surface are finely carved figures in relief—on the left, a figure of Pan, holding a syrinx, or reed pipes, and a pedum, a type of wooden stick. To the right of the plate, a dancing maenad, a wild follower of Bacchus, plays a double aulos. Near the top is a reclining water nymph, and at the bottom, a fawn and a snake wind their way through the scene. This intricate design was created using silver in both relief and chasing techniques.
On the inside of the footring is a Greek inscription: “Eutheriou,” meaning “of Eutherios,” indicating this was once owned by someone by that name. This plate was found in a hoard of silver treasures from the fourth century AD, likely hidden during times of political unrest in Roman Britain. The decorative themes draw heavily from classical mythology, particularly the cult of Bacchus, the god of wine.
See it in person
The Mildenhall Bacchic plate is on display in Room 49 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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