Maryport Roman Altar

Ongoing excavations at Maryport have turned up another Roman altar to add to the collection at the Senhouse Museum. This is the first found at the site since the original discoveries of 1870, bringing the total to 18. The text appears to be

I O M

COH I BAE

TASIORVM

C R CVI PRAEST

ATTIVS TVTOR

PRAEF VSLLM

the text being virtually identical to RIB 830; an altar set up to Jupiter, best and greatest, by T Attius Tutor, praefect of the First Cohort of Baetasians, Roman citizens (I don't see the T for T(itus) Attius Tutor, but this photo isn't much to go on).

If you have been following reports of the excavations (or reading Current Archaeology 259) you may already be aware of the conclusion that the altars were not 'ritually buried' but merely reused in the foundations of a large timber structure.