About Set in Stone

Set in Stone looks at the fort structures themselves, along with religion and Roman burial practices. It includes stonework from the buildings inside the fort and inscriptions commemorating the buildings.  

A series of altars reflect the religious life of the Romans and finds from the cemetery illustrate the burial practice of the Romans on this site.  

Highlights include a very large altar with a worn inscription which may well contain evidence of Arbeia’s earlier name of Fort Lugudunum.  

Set in Stone also includes two of the finest Romano British tombstones in the country, one of which is the Regina Tombstone. 

The tombstone records a British woman called Regina, who originally came from south-east England, from the tribe of the Catuvellauni (based round St Albans). At some stage Regina becomes the slave of Barates, from Palmyra in Syria. He later frees her, she becomes a ‘freedwoman’, and he marries her. Regina and Barates would have lived in the civilian settlement outside the fort. Barates was probably a trader, dealing with the army. 

When she died aged 30, he had this expensive tombstone made for her. It is Roman in style and has a Latin inscription which reads: 

‘To the spirits of the dead and to Regina of the Catuvellauni, freedwoman and wife, age 30, Barates of Palmyra [set this up]’ 

Uniquely in Britain, below the Latin is a second inscription in Barates’ own language, Aramaic, which reads: 

'Regina, freedwoman of Barates, alas.’ 

The tombstone was probably carved by a Palmyrene (not Barates) – the Aramaic is more confident than the Latin (a corrected letter can be seen in the Latin inscription) – indicating there were other Syrians living at South Shields. The tombstone is late second century.

Regina is shown sitting in a wicker chair (a mainstream type of Roman chair), with spinning in her hands (spinning thread was a very feminine thing to do, and shows she was dutiful and industrious, etc.  She is also opening up a box, presumably to show off money or jewellery (key hole visible on box, so must be for valuables of some type).  She is wearing provincial clothing, the type of gown that was fashionable in Britain at the time, but not worn in Rome. 

This tombstone is evidence for immigration and the mixing of cultures 1800 years ago and shows a mix of mainstream Roman, provincial Roman, native and immigrant cultures.

Read more about the Regina Tombstone in a blog post written by Keeper of Archaeology, Alex Croom.