The drawing was scratched around AD 220 onto a malformed lead ingot discarded at Brancaster, an early Saxon Shore site on the Norfolk coast. It shows recognizable ship features including shields, planking, sails, and a ram-shaped hull. Its value lies in being an informal image apparently made by someone who had seen such a vessel. The artifact gives rare visual evidence for the war galleys operating around Roman Britain before the Classis Britannica disappears from the record.
Notable Point · 43:40-45:47
Brancaster graffiti pictures a Roman war galley
A piece of early third-century graffiti from Brancaster preserves a contemporary observer's image of a Classis Britannica galley.