Around 200 AD a young woman in her twenties was buried in a wooden coffin at Ardley in North Oxfordshire. We can guess her sex and age from a study of the skeleton, which was found by chance when a pipe-trench was being dug in 1966. She was buried in a simple wooden coffin constructed with iron nails. Food, drink and perfumed oil or unguents were placed at her feet in three small pottery vessels, and she wore two jet pins in her hair.

Britain was one of the principal sources of jet in the Roman period; the 3rd century author Solinus refers to the properties of British jet. This dense, black, fossil material was used for the manufacture of pins, beads and bracelets because it was easily worked and capable of a high polish. Jet was mined in quantity in Whitby in Yorkshire, carved in nearby York, and exported all over Roman Britain.

© 1998 Oxfordshire Museum Service, Setúbal Museums and the Benaki Museum