The rare discovery of a well-preserved miliarium—a water
boiler—in a rural bath house in Gaul suggests that the technology of water
supply had penetrated the remoter parts of the Roman world. Such boilers
were frequently recycled for their valuable metal content. This example, by
contrast, was buried close to where it once stood—perhaps in connection with
the ritual deposit of complete animal carcasses around the bath house. The
symbolic associations of the boiler are suggested by decorative elements
including the mask of a bearded man, argued to represent
Okeanos, a divine personification of the sea. The
near-complete state of the boiler also provides new insight into the
processes used in its manufacture from lead and copper alloys.