Cauldron

Roman cauldron, discovered by archaeologists during the excavation of a Roman well at Drapers' Gardens, City of London, in 2007. It is of a type known as 'Westland', named after a region of Sweden where several have been found. These cauldrons are also found in Germany. It would have been made in Gaul (an area of the Roman empire that includes modern-day France and Belgium). The cauldron has a round base and a simple turned-out rim. There are two triangular lugs on the rim, through which the flattened copper-alloy handle is threaded. The ends of the handle curve upwards to keep it in place. As it has a rounded base, it probably needed to stand on a trivet, one of which was found with it (see trivet DGT06[3637]<815>).
The cauldron was part of a hoard of 20 high-quality vessels and utensils deposited in a late Roman well. Evidence from coins found with the hoard suggested the vessels were placed there sometime between 375 CE and the early 400s. This was a time when Roman London was falling into decline and slowly being abandoned. The hoard is likely to have been the ritual deposition of a set of tableware, perhaps an offering to the gods to close the well and bring good luck to the people that owned the vessels before they left London to live elsewhere. The ceremony can be guessed at, due to the layers of objects in the well: first some coins were thrown in, then broken pieces of the well's bucket, then a woman deliberately broke her bracelet and dropped it in. On top of that were stacked the vessels, perhaps after a final feast in which they were used, and then part of a carcass of a young deer was added.