Pensioner discovers bowl he had been using in his garden is really a 2,000-year-old precious Roman artefact 

A man in Alcester was in for a surprise when it was realised the bowl he had used for ten years as a bird bath, was really a precious Roman artefact.
Ray Taylor had dug the bowl up in his garden when planting rhubarb, and used it to create a DIY bird bath. 
But a museum has now revealed that the bowl is one of the most complete Roman bowls discovered in the last 50 years. 
WHAT IS A MORTARIUM?  A mortarium was a type of Ancient Roman pottery kitchen vessels.
The bowls were used for pounding or mixing foods and are an important indicator of the spread of Romanized food preparation methods.... read more