FRONTIER TOURISTS

On a June day in 2003, metal detectorists in the north Staffordshire village of Ilam unearthed a curious object. The second-century AD trulla – a small saucepan – is made of a copper alloy, inlaid with colourful, slightly psychedelic enamel whirls. What makes the artefact, now known as the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan (or Ilam Pan), special, though, is the Latin inscription running around its rim: MAIS COGGABATA VXELODVNVM CAMMOGLANNA RIGORE VALI AELI DRACONIS.

What does it mean? Well, the first four words are names of Roman forts in Cumbria: Mais (at Bowness-on-Solway), Coggabata (Drumburgh), Uxelodunum (Stanwix) and Cammoglanna (Castlesteads). The second part of the inscription – RIGORE VALI AELI DRACONIS – can be translated as: “Along the line of Hadrian’s Wall, [this is the cup of] Draco.” If that interpretation