Silver spoons from the Mildenhall treasure

The eight spoons in the Mildenhall treasure represent examples from at least three, perhaps four, sets. It seems fair to assume that the owner of such an outstanding piece of silver plate as the Great Dish would have had a large number of spoons, most of which were not hidden in this particular cache. Three spoons have foliate decoration which matches that on the large fluted bowl. Another three bear the only overt Christian symbols in the hoard, the Greek letters chi and rho, the first letters of Christ's name, flanked by alpha and omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, another symbol of Christ - 'I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last' (Revelation 1:8)). The remaining two spoons have personal names (Papittedo and Pascentia) with the word vivas ('may you live'), a good-luck formula frequently used in late-Roman times, often by Christians.