Ancient Relic Reveals Past Religious Battles

When Christianity took over from paganism, the process wasn't peaceful - Christian emperors routinely oppressed pagans and prohibited pagan worship while under Julian a pagan revival led to Christian retreats. Sometimes, archaeologists discover evidence of the conflict.

This Is Lincolnshire reports on a Roman font more than 1,600 years old being discovered:

Finds liaison officer Adam Daubney said the font reveals more about its destruction than it does its function. "It is likely the font was made in the East Midlands between 300AD and 350AD and used by Christians in baptism," he said. "At that time Britain was being ruled by the Roman Emperor Constantius II - who had made pagan worship punishable by death. Pagans were feeling further undermined by a growing rift between the rich and poor - the final insult was the lavish privileges handed out by the emperor to the Christian clergy."

As a result of this unease Britain underwent attacks by the Picts, the Scots, and the Saxons, resulting in a common, united attack in 367AD to 379AD - named the Barbarian Conspiracy. Mr Daubney said: "Between 360AD and 380AD, under the encouragement of Emperor Julian, there was a pagan revival. It is likely the fonts were destroyed by the barbarians to mask the memory, power and symbolism of Christianity. However the pagans would not have wanted to annihilate the artefacts it would be much better to cut them up and re-melt them."

I’ve used a metal detector a couple of times, but obviously never found anything like this — though I certainly wish I could! Granted, you can’t keep something like this but a few pictures would certainly make the effort worthwhile on a personal level. I wonder who the last people to see and use the font were, and what they were doing?

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