The image for VM_365  Day 130 is of an unusual  perforated lead drain cover dating to the 2nd century AD, which was found at the Abbey Farm Roman Villa site at Minster in 2004.

The object was made by bending a thick lead sheet  over the end of a pipe which is no longer present, forming the strange folded look of the outer flange. Using a square object, the pattern of small holes were punched into the surface of the lead that would have covered the opening of the drain pipe. It appears that the lead covering was intended to create a vent to distribute the flow of water, or perhaps a filter to prevent larger material from passing through the drain. Ceramic drain pipes were found on the site and the cover may have been fitted to one of these.

The lead cover was found in a ditch at the Villa  adjacent to a detached Bath House located by the south west corner of the boundary wall of the main villa complex (Building 6A).  The ditch was located outside a small sunken room at the south western corner of the bath house (Room 42), which was later used as a stoking chamber for the hypocaust systems under the floors of two adjacent rooms.

Before it was converted into a stoking chamber this room  may have been a sunken bath,  with the external ditch acting as a drain. The lead cover was found at the base of the ditch and although it was not found in place it seems likely to have been part of the system of drainage  for the sunken bath in this room.

References

Parfitt, K. 2007. The Roman Villa at Minster-in-Thanet. Part 4. the South West buildings, 6A and 6B. Archaeologia Cantiana Volume 127, 261-296.