Nearly 2,000 years ago, a Roman toddler, just two or three years old, was laid to rest in what is now southwest England. Into the grave, dated to the second century C.E., mourners placed a rooster figurine of enameled copper, as well as a tettina—something like an ancient sippy cup. Researchers from Cotswold Archaeology unearthed the grave’s contents in 2011, as part of a years-long excavation of a major Roman cemetery located in the modern-day town of Cirencester.
The cemetery contained 118 inhumations and eight cremation burials, while the child’s grave was discovered just outside the cemetery’s walls. The tettina was “likely placed with the burial to provide sustenance to the child’s spirit as it made its way to the underworld,” she explains. While the cockerel figurine was restored and displayed at the Corinium Museum soon after its discovery, the tettina, which was found broken into pieces, was only recently reconstructed.
It debuted at the museum this month, alongside the cockerel in a special display. Established in the first century—shortly after Roman emperor Claudius invaded Britain in 43 C.E.—it grew into the second largest town in the Roman province of Britannia. Spanning 240 acres, enclosed by a two-mile-long wall, Corinium was smaller only than Londinium (modern-day London).
According to ancient medical texts, Romans were encouraged to feed their babies only breastmilk until the baby began teething. The recently restored tettina—from the Italian for “teat”—is essentially a Roman feeding bottle, James Harris, the Corinium Museum’s collections engagement officer, writes in a blog post. The round ceramic artifact has a small opening on top and a drinking spout on the side.
About 120 of these artifacts have been unearthed in Britain. Some have been found at military sites, which suggests that they could have been used to nurse injured soldiers. In others, researchers have identified chemical traces of animal milk, suggesting mothers used them to wean their children off breastmilk, or in place of breastmilk entirely.
Once excavated, the Corinium tettina sat in fragments in storage until the Friends of Corinium Museum raised the funds required to have it conserved. Together with the rooster figurine, the cup hints at the sentiment and spirituality of the child’s burial, as well as the status of the child’s family. Ancient Romans associated roosters with the messenger god Mercury, who also was believed to have the job of shepherding souls to the afterlife.
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