A 2,000-year-old pan which was a souvenir of Hadrian's Wall in Roman times is to go on display at three British museums.
The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan, which was discovered by a metal detector in Staffordshire in 2003, was made as both a functional vessel and as a souvenir. An engraved inscription lists four forts on Hadrian's Wall.
Ralph Jackson, curator of the Romano-British collection at the British Museum, in London, said: "This little gem of British craftmanship, a unique find of the greatest importance, shows us that Hadrian's Wall was as famous in the Roman world as it is today.
" Visually striking and replete with fascinating information, it is a most notable acquisition for the nation." The pan will initially go on display at the British Museum and will then be shown at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, in 2006 and the Tullie House Museum and Gallery, Carlisle, in 2007.
The pan has been acquired by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £112,000 - of which £100,000 goes to the original finders of the object and the owners of the land where it was discovered.
Mr Jackson said it was of national and international importance
The pan could be the first and only object with an inscription on it which bears the words "Hadrian's Wall" rather than just "the wall".
It is thought to have been a souvenir belonging to a soldier or junior officer who had served his time at the wall.
He could have commissioned the pan himself as a memento of his time there, or it could have been presented to him as a gift.
It is thought that the 94mm-diameter pan, which weighs 132.5 grams, may have also marked the fact that the soldier had become a Roman citizen.
Soldiers were given citizenship after 25 years in service and the antiquity contains Hadrian's family name, Aelius, which would traditionally have been adopted by anyone obtaining Roman citizenship under his rule.
The pan contains the inscription of four of the forts on Hadrian's Wall, Mais (Bowness-on-Solway), Coggabata (Drumburgh), Vxelodvnvm (Stanwix) and Cammoglanna (Castlesteads).
It is the first time that Drumburgh has been found on a wall souvenir and the spelling of Cammoglanna was previously uncertain.
Why the pan turned up in the Staffordshire moorland remains a mystery. Experts believe it could have been offered to the gods as thanks for good fortune by the soldier - whose name, Draco, is Greek and suggests an origin in the eastern Roman empire - or even by one of his descendants.
Mr Jackson said replicas of the pan would be made so that it would always be on display in some form at the free museum.
Ian Lawley, Stoke-on-Trent City Council's Head of Museums, said the object had relevance today.
"As we live in an increasingly multicultural society - this is evidence of an earlier multicultural society, that of the Roman diaspora."
The pan was discovered by Kevin Blackburn from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, and three friends on June 29, 2003.
Mr Blackburn, aged 49, said he was delighted that the pan would go on show at three museums.
He said: "I haven't seen it for two years and I will definitely be going to have a look at it again.
"When I found it it was one of those days when I was the only one in our group of four who hadn't found anything.
"As I always do, I said I wasn't going to stop looking until I found something. On this occasion I actually did.
"I knew it was going to be fairly important because I saw the Roman inscription but I didn't realise it was going to be as important as it turned out to be."
Mr Blackburn, will be splitting the money with the landowner as well as the group of treasure hunters he was out with on the day.
He said: "We don't do it for the money.
" We're interested in antiquities."
