{"id":21480,"date":"2026-05-11T19:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/21480\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T19:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:00:17","slug":"rare-roman-cup-found-in-spain-names-four-forts-from-hadrians-wall-nearly-2000-kilometers-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/21480\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare Roman Cup Found in Spain Names Four Forts From Hadrian\u2019s Wall Nearly 2,000 Kilometers Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ancient<\/a>3D reconstruction of the newly found Roman cup. Credit: 3D Stoa \u2013 Archaeology and Heritage\/Cambridge University Press<\/p>\n

A Spanish farmer thought he had found a few broken scraps of bronze. Instead, the fragments belonged to an ancient cup, which carried the names of Roman forts nearly 2,000 kilometers away.<\/p>\n

The artifact is now known as the \u201cBerlanga Cup,\u201d a rare enameled bronze vessel engraved with the names of Roman forts in northern Britain. Researchers argue it may have been bought, commissioned or received by a soldier who served on Rome\u2019s northernmost frontiers, then carried it home to Celtiberia.<\/p>\n

Miniature Wall<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/a>Location of Berlanga de Duero (Soria) on the Iberian Peninsula and aerial view of the La Cerrada de Arroyo site.\u00a0Credit: Jes\u00fas Garc\u00eda et al.<\/p>\n

Hadrian\u2019s Wall stretched across northern Britain, marking the empire\u2019s northwestern edge after construction began in A.D. 122. Long after its stones weathered, a few bronze vessels preserved miniature versions of the frontier, with depictions of crenellated towers, colored enamel, and the names of forts.<\/p>\n

The most famous, the Rudge Cup<\/a>, surfaced in England in 1725. Others followed: the Amiens Patera<\/a>, the Bath Pan<\/a>, the Ilam Pan<\/a>, the Basildon fragment and the Hildburgh fragment. Most mention forts from the western or central stretches of the Wall.<\/p>\n

The Berlanga Cup is the first one found this far from Britain. Its surviving inscription reads, in part, \u201c[\u2026] RNVMONNOV [\u2026] DOBALACONDERCOMDDDD.\u201d The researchers identify those names as Cilurnum, Onno, Vindobala and Condercom \u2014 forts in the eastern sector of the Wall, listed in their west-to-east order. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first known find of a cup that refers to the eastern side of the Wall,\u201d according to the Britannia study authors.<\/p>\n

The cup itself was thin-walled, about 11.4 centimeters wide and 8 centimeters high, making it one of the largest known Hadrian\u2019s Wall pans. Its outer surface held three bands of decoration: fish-scale patterns, square panels and tower-like motifs filled with enamel. Digital reconstruction showed that about 91% of the original surface survives.<\/p>\n

Made in Britain (Likely)<\/p>\n

\"Detailed<\/a>Eastern side of Hadrian\u2019s Wall with the camps mentioned on the Berlanga Cup above an orthographic display on a plan of the outer surface of the cup.\u00a0Credit: Jes\u00fas Garc\u00eda et al.<\/p>\n

The team studied the fragments with portable X-ray fluorescence, lead isotope analysis and 3D scanning. The metal proved to be a copper alloy with lead, a material consistent with Roman metalworking in Britain. The lead signature points to northern England or Wales, with sources near Hadrian\u2019s Wall especially plausible.<\/p>\n

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The enamel added more clues. Its colors, chemistry and motifs all fit craft traditions known from Roman Britain.<\/p>\n

Under magnification, researchers found signs that the cup body was made first and the inscription was cut later. In other words, a buyer may have asked a craftsperson to engrave a specific set of forts, which were then filled with enamel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not only crafted with metals, but also expensive enamels, and later on customized,\u201d co-author Jes\u00fas Garc\u00eda S\u00e1nchez told Live Science<\/a>. \u201cIt is definitely not an industrial product.\u201d<\/p>\n

So who ordered it?<\/p>\n

The study points to a soldier, perhaps a veteran of the Cohors I Celtiberorum, an auxiliary unit recruited from Celtiberia \u2014 the same broad region where Berlanga lies. The unit served in Britain and is known from inscriptions and military records linked to the area around Hadrian\u2019s Wall.<\/p>\n

Other Hispanic units also served near the forts named on the cup. The Ala II Asturum Hispanorum was later associated with Cilurnum, while the Ala I Asturum Hispanorum was stationed at Condercum. Either connection could help explain how a cup made near the Wall ended up in central Spain.<\/p>\n

A Villa Beneath the Field?<\/p>\n

\"Satellite<\/a>La Cerrada de Arroyo (Berlanga de Duero, Soria). Results of the geophysical survey. Credit: Jes\u00fas Garc\u00eda et al.<\/p>\n

The cup did not come out of a formal excavation, so the team went back to the field around it. At La Cerrada de Arroyo, ground-penetrating radar picked up buried Roman buildings: a rectangular structure with rooms, traces of preserved floors, and, nearby, a room ending in an apse. On the surface, archaeologists collected roof tiles, glass, slag, terra sigillata, and locally styled Roman pottery. Together, the evidence points to a rural settlement, possibly a villa, used between the first and fourth centuries A.D.<\/p>\n

For now, the site raises more questions than it answers. However, the radar survey only captured part of the complex. The researchers say more work will be needed to learn how large the settlement was and whether it connected to other Roman remains already known in Berlanga. <\/p>\n

The Berlanga Cup now sits in the Museo Numantino in Soria. <\/p>\n

The study was published in the journal Britannia<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3D reconstruction of the newly found Roman cup. Credit: 3D Stoa \u2013 Archaeology and Heritage\/Cambridge University Press A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1533,351,7764,11413,11414,11415,7766,11416,8318,8104,11417,11418,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-21480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-ancient-history","9":"tag-archaeology","10":"tag-berlanga-cup","11":"tag-britannia","12":"tag-bronze-artifacts","13":"tag-celtiberia","14":"tag-hadrians-wall","15":"tag-museo-numantino","16":"tag-roman-britain","17":"tag-roman-empire","18":"tag-roman-forts","19":"tag-roman-spain","20":"tag-spain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}