The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan
- Gallery: Room 49
- Culture: Romano-British
- Date: 2ndC(mid)
- Object type: trulla
- Materials: copper alloy; enamel
- Museum number: 2005,1204.1
- 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.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is "The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan," a beautifully crafted copper-alloy vessel decorated with vibrant enamel inlay. This Romano-British trulla is missing its handle and base, but its circular bowl remains intact, featuring a beaded rim and a raised foot-ring.
The pan's most striking element is the circular band of curvilinear Celtic-style ornamentation on its convex wall. Eight roundels, each enclosing a complex six-armed whirligig centered on a three-petaled motif, alternate with hollow-sided triangles. The swirling patterns use enamel in red, blue, turquoise, and yellow.
Below the rim, the pan features an engraved Latin inscription inlaid with turquoise enamel. It lists four Roman forts at the western end of Hadrian’s Wall. The final phrase—"Rigore Vali Aeli Draco"—remains a subject of debate among scholars, possibly referencing either the Emperor Hadrian or a military officer named Aelius Draco.
See it in person
The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan 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.
New, in beta. British Museum support has just launched and is still improving: over 1,000 objects so far, with more added all the time.
