South Shields vicus, Roman tombstone of Regina

HER Number

898

District

S Tyneside

Site Name

South Shields vicus, Roman tombstone of Regina

Place

South Shields

Map Sheet

NZ36NE

Class

Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad

Tomb

Site Type: Specific

Tombstone

General Period

ROMAN

Specific Period

Roman 43 to 410

Form of Evidence

Find

Description

Tombstone, 28 inches x 44 inches, found in 1878 south of Bath Street. Now in 4 pieces. In a gabled niche the deceased sits in a wicker chair. She is wearing a long-sleeved robe over her tunic, a necklace and bracelets. On her lap she holds a distaff and spindle, at her left side is her work-basket, at her right her jewellry box. Her face has been hacked off. Its inscription reads: D(is) M(anibus) Regina liberta et coniuge / Barates Palmyrenus natione / Catuallauna an(norum) XXX; To the spirits of the departed (and to) Regina, his freedwoman and wife, a Catuvellaunian by tribe, aged 30, Barates of Palmyra (set this up).

Easting

436490

Northing

567480

Grid Reference

NZ436490567480

Sources

<< HER 898 >> JC. Bruce, 1885, On the recent discoveries in the Roman Camp on the Lawe... Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, X, 238-43
T. Hodgkin, 1901, On a Palmyrene Inscription illustrating the epitaph of Regina.... Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 2, IX (for 1899-1900), 158-60
D. Smith, 1959, A Palmyrene Sculptor at South Shields? Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XXXVII, 203-10
R.G. Collingwood & R.P. Wright, 1965, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, 1065
E.J. Phillips, 1977, Great Britain, Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Vol. I Fasc. I no. 247
P.T. Bidwell, 1988, The Civilian Settlement...of the Roman Fort at South Shields, No. 14