The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan is a 2nd century AD enamelled bronze trulla with an inscription relating to the forts of Hadrian's Wall. It was found in June 2003 and in 2005 was bought jointly by the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle, the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent and London's British Museum, with the help of a grant of £112,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The pan rotates between a number of locations, including the joint owning museums and another museum on Hadrian's Wall; until May 2011 it was on display at Stoke-on-Trent. The pan weights 132.5 gm, and is 47 mm high with a maximum diameter of 94 mm, and one of 54 mm around the outside of the base.[1]
The pan, although lacking its handle and base, is an extremely well preserved enamelled and inscribed bronze (strictly of "copper alloy"), decorated in a Celtic style; the Celtic peoples of the Roman period made more use of enamel on metal than other parts of the Empire. The decoration consists of "eight roundels, with eight pairs of intervening hollow-sided triangles. Each roundel encloses a swirling six-armed whirligig centred on a three-petalled device inlaid with red, blue, turquoise and yellow-coloured enamel."[2] It has been suggested that in addition to its functional role it may have been a 'souvenir' of Hadrian's Wall, made for a soldier who had served there. The inscription round the rim is engraved and then filled with enamel. It names forts on the wall: MAIS (Bowness-on-Solway), COGGABATA (Drumburgh), VXELODVNVM (Stanwix), CAMMOGLANNA (Castlesteads). The final part: RIGORE VALI AELI DRACONIS, is more elusive in meaning, but refers to the wall VALI, and probably a soldier DRACO. AELI may be part of his name, but was also Hadrian's family name, so may go with VALI. It is a find of great national and international significance.[3] There are other comparable trulli, and two with inscriptions relating to the wall; the inscription means this piece was almost certainly manufactured locally. Judging by these other finds, the handle would have been flat, with enamel decoration on the upper surface.