A chance discovery of a broken bronze cup in Spain has revealed a 1,900-year-old depiction of Hadrian's Wall and forts in England, a new study reports. The multicolored vessel was likely crafted as a memento of a soldier's time defending the frontiers of the Roman Empire, the study authors said.
The cup was discovered in Berlanga de Duero, a municipality in central Spain, nearly 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) from the storied Roman defensive wall that protected the northern frontier of the empire in the second century. The hemispheric "Berlanga Cup" is about 4.5 inches (11.4 centimeters) wide and around 3.2 inches (8.1 cm) tall. It features colorful enameled designs and a Latin inscription that mentions four forts.
