Ewer of hammered copper, the brass handle strengthened with twisted wire, Byzantine, 7th century.

Ewer of hammered copper, the brass handle strengthened with twisted wire which encircles the neck and is there flattened and stamped with three medallions of a saint on horseback. The lid is missing tapering from the flattened, radially fluted shoulder to the flat base; cylindrical neck. Covered with a green patina.

Purchased by the Museum from Mr Balthasar Mitri in 1910.

In October 2003 the Museum of London Archaeology Service (MoLAS) began an archaeological investigation at Prittlewell in south-east Essex. The work was part of a proposed road improvement on the site of a known Anglo-Saxon cemetery. The archaeologists discovered a burial that was a rare example of a princely burial of the 7th century AD. Four copper alloy vessels were found hanging on iron hooks on the chamber wall. They included a Byzantine flagon very similar to the present example.

Such flagons were cast in a mould, shouldered with a slightly convex base and a lid that is secured to the ornate handle by means of a chain. The handle was made separately and is atttached to the neck by a plain band and to the body by a second band, the central part of which has three embossed medallions of figures, possibly saints, on horses facing to the left. Vessels of this type were made in the eastern Mediterranean between the 6th and 9th centuries. They were widely exported but the Prittlewell flagon was the first example to be found in an archaeological context in England.

Byzantine Empire

This is a ewer of hammered copper, the brass handle strengthened with twisted wire which encircles the neck and is flattened and stamped with three medallions of a saint on horseback. Vessels of this type were made in the eastern Mediterranean between the 6th and 9th centuries. They were widely exported and a similar flagon has been excavated from a princely burial in an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Prittlewell, south-east Essex.

The Anglo-Saxons believed the dead would need their belongings in their next life. Feasting and drinking was central to Anglo Saxon culture, especially drinking. Cauldrons, buckets, bowls, glass jars, drinking horns, cups and beakers, frequently occur in the graves of high status individuals; all suggesting the hospitality and feasting in the great hall described in Beowulf, one of the earliest poems in the English language,.

M.434-1910