Lead Brooch Molds Reveal Roman Workshop Under New Homes in Wales
Archaeologists found a Roman settlement nearly 2,000 years old with a brooch workshop at Mancot, Flintshire. Here is what the coins, molds and pottery show.
Lead molds for casting brooches, enameled ornaments shaped like animals and two Roman coins struck more than a century apart have turned up beneath a new housing development in Mancot, Flintshire, in north-east Wales. Archaeologists say the finds point to a settlement close to 2,000 years old that made decorative metalwork, possibly for people living in Roman Chester.
The dig was carried out by Heneb, the Trust for Welsh Archaeology, ahead of construction on Gladstone Way, according to HeritageDaily, which credits the BBC. The team recovered dozens of objects, including brooches, jewelry molds, pottery and coins, and described the haul as one of the largest groups of Roman artifacts ever found in Flintshire.
A brooch workshop on the hill above Chester
The lead molds were used to make several kinds of brooch, which tells the excavators that skilled craft work was happening on site. Romans used brooches to pin their clothing, and many were also worn as showy personal ornaments. Some of the Mancot examples still hold traces of colored enamel.
Project manager Chris Matthews said the workshop shows local industry using the region’s metal resources to make goods for Roman society. The researchers suggest its customers may have included residents of Chester, which the Romans called Deva Victrix. That town grew up around a large legionary fortress built during the conquest of Britain and became one of the most important military centers in the province. Mancot sits on raised ground looking over it.
Some of the pottery from the dig hints at trade reaching as far as continental Europe.
How the coins date the site
One coin dates to the reign of Emperor Commodus, who ruled from AD 177 to 192. The other shows Constantine, whose reign began in AD 306. The gap between them fits other signs that people lived at the site over a long stretch of time.
The archaeologists think the settlement may have started in the Iron Age, before the Romans arrived, and stayed in use through much of the Roman period. They say the earliest phases still need more study, so that start date remains a working idea.
Why it matters for Roman Wales
Until now, relatively little Roman archaeology had been found in north-east Wales. That scarcity fed a long debate about how Roman communities and the native population got along. Mancot joins other recent finds in the region, at Greenfield and Rossett, that researchers say are changing that picture.
The evidence at Mancot points to local manufacturing, long-distance trade and people staying in one place for generations. To the excavators, that suggests communities overlooking Chester belonged to a wider economic network than the thin record had shown. Matthews said the discovery has changed how archaeologists understand the area in the Roman period.
The dig may also have uncovered only part of the settlement. Houses now stand over some of the excavated ground, but the team recorded and mapped the remains before building went ahead. Their survey shows the ancient settlement continues beyond the dig and under parts of the modern village.
What happens to the finds next
A selection of brooches and molds has been conserved and will be studied at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. Specialists want to learn how the brooches were made, which metals went into them and where those raw materials came from.
The objects are then expected to go back to north-east Wales. Flintshire Museums Service hopes to show some of the most important pieces, especially the brooches, at Mold Museum during 2027.
Source: HeritageDaily
