Walesby lead tank

Christianity was granted freedom from persecution by the Emperor Constantine I in AD312, who would convert to the religion on his deathbed. What is less clear is to what extent Christianity was adopted by the masses, especially in the far-flung outreaches of the Empire such as Lincolnshire.

This lead tank is evidence of the existence of Christianity in late Roman Lincolnshire. The imagery on the tank shows a ‘chi-rho’ monogram (the first letters of Christ’s name in Greek, which appear like an ‘x’ and a ‘p’) alongside an image of three figures, the central one seemingly about to be baptised. The tank was deliberately broken into pieces at the end of its useful life.