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A Hoard of Late Roman Bronze Bowls and Mounts from the Misbourne Valley, near Amersham, Bucks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Michael Farley ,
Martin Henig  and
John W. Taylor
Michael Farley
Affiliation:
Buckinghamshire County Museum, Church Street, Aylesbury
Martin Henig
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Beaumont Street, Oxford
John W. Taylor
Affiliation:
Ashmolean Library, Oxford
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Extract

The discovery of a hoard of bronze bowls and of two bronze human-headed terminals in the vicinity of Amersham is of some importance. In the following account, the context of the finds is discussed by Michael Farley, the bowls and the coins by John Taylor and the heads by Martin Henig.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 19 , November 1988 , pp. 357 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © Michael Farley, Martin Henig and John W. Taylor 1988. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 The authors would like to thank Lyn Sellwood for her help, Robert Wilkins F.S. A. for the photographs, Diana Bonakis for the drawing of Head i and Mélanie Steiner for drawing the bowls. We are also grateful to Messrs P. Melling and T. Rainer who reported the initial discovery. The bowls and Head I are deposited at Buckinghamshire County Museum ref. L. 315 and Head 2 ref. L. 397.1986. The bronzes were conserved in the Laboratory of the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford by Sarah Pollard and Lorna Ring. XRF analyses were carried out by A.M. Pollard and by Catherine Mortimer at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and Art History, Oxford.

2 Yeoman, P., S. Midlands Arch. xiv (1984), 11–13Google Scholar ; xv (1985), 25–6.

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4 Green, M.J., A Corpus of Religious Material from the Civilian Areas of Roman Britain, BAR Brit. Ser. 24 (1976). 196–7.Google Scholar For a model scythe found near Aylesbury see Green, M., Records of Bucks, xxiii (1981), 61–2.Google Scholar

5 Toynbee, J.M.C., Art in Britain under the Romans (Oxford, 1964), 81, pl. XVII c and d.Google Scholar

6 Buckinghamshire County Museum Ace. no. 289.1980.

7 Johnson, A.E., Records of Bucks xx pt. 1 (1975), 3–5.Google ScholarGreen, M., Records of Bucks, xxv (1983), 139–141.Google Scholar

8 Hoards of bronze bowls from Irchester, Burwell and Sturmer, and of roughly contemporary date with the Amersham hoard, were deposited in a similar manner.

9 Gregory, T., Proc. Camb. Antiq. Soc. lxvi (1976), 67. fig. 1. no. 2.Google Scholar

10 On planishing see: Sandham, R. and Willmore, F.R., Metalwork (London, 1971), 101Google Scholar ; Loyen, F., Manual of Silversmithing (London, 1908), 66–68Google Scholar ; Punter, I., Projects and Designs in Metalwork (London, 1981), 44–47Google Scholar ; Pettit, T., Metal Made Simple (London, 1984), 135.Google Scholar

11 Comparable to the decoration on Burwell, No. 1 (Gregory, op. cit. (note 9), 66, fig. 1. no. 1) and Weeting, No. 7 (Gregory, T., Norfolk Arch. xxxvi (1976), 269, fig. 3.)Google Scholar

12 On the use of the compass see: Lowry, P.R., Savage, R.D.A. and Wilkins, R.L., Archaeologia cv (1976), 100–101.Google Scholar Alternatively it could have been caused by the lathe centre (See Muhtz, A.. Die Kunst des Metalldrehens bei den Römern (Basel, 1972)).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 See Henry, F., Journ. Roy. Soc. Antiq. lreland lxvi (1932), pl. xxi, no. 4Google Scholar ; Kendrick, T.D., Antiquity vi (1932), 162–166.Google Scholar Cf. Schumacher, C., Beschreibung der Sammlung Antiker Bronzen (Karlsruhe, 1890), pl. viii.Google Scholar

14 Loyen, op. cit. (note 10), 126.

15 Kennett, D.H., Jahrbuch RGZM xvi (1969), 123–148.Google ScholarKennett, D.H., Journ. Northampton Museum & Art Gallery iv (1968), 5–39.Google Scholar For continental comparisons see: Boesterd, M.H.P.D., The Bronze Vessels in the Rijksmuseum G.M. Kam at Nijmegen (Nijmegen, 1956), no. 208.Google Scholar

16 Smith, R., PSAS xxvii 2ser. (1914–1915), 76–95.Google Scholar

17 ibid., 89–90.

18 VCH Kent I (1908), 385; Kennett, op. cit. (note 15, 1968), 29.

19 VCH Essex III (1963), 185, pl. 27a. Archaeologia xvi (1812), 364, pl. lxix.

20 VCH Bedfordshire I (1904), 184.

21 VCH Northamptonshire I (1902), 183, fig. 14. Baker, R.S., Associated Architectural Societies Reports and Papers xiii (1875), 88–118.Google Scholar

22 Smith, op. cit. (note 16), 89.

23 Thomas, G.W., Archaeologia I (1887), 395Google Scholar ; Kennett, op. cit. (note 15, 1968), 30.

24 A Handbook to the Antiquities of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, 8th ed. (York, 1891) 141–143. Eggers, H.J., Jahrbuch RGZM xiii (1966), 107, Abb. 43.Google Scholar

25 Banks, J., Archaeologia xiv (1803), 275, pl. xliv, no. 4.Google Scholar

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27 Peacock, D.P.S., Lines. Architectural & Archaeological Soc. NS ix, pt. 2 (1962), 110–124.Google Scholar

28 Gregory, op. cit. (note 9).

29 Gregory, op. cit. (note 11).

30 Kennett, op. cit. (note 15, 1968), 29.

31 Smith, op. cit. (note 16), 86; Kennett, op. cit. (note 15, 1969), 135, fig. 12, nos. 8–9.

32 Kennett, op. cit. (note 15, 1968) 36; Gregory, op. cit. (note 9), 77–78.

33 Bronze No. 1 is mentioned (with photograph) in Henig, M., Religion in Roman Britain (London, 1984), 138–9, pl. 60Google Scholar , where its height is given as only 32 mm. It is also figured in idem, JBAA cxxxviii (1985), 11–12, fig. 2.

34 It is hard to see that this was done with any very precise aesthetic effect in mind as the differences are so minor but cf. Vermeille, C.C., Greek Sculpture and Roman Taste (Ann Arbor, 1977)Google Scholar for the considerable use made of mirror reversal by the Romans.

35 Henig, M., Religion in Roman Britain (1984), 142–3, pl. 64.Google Scholar

36 cf. Daremberg and Saglio. Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines IV, 1083–90.

37 Green, M.J., The Wheel as a Cult-Symbol in the Romano-Celtic World (Coll. Latomus 183, Brussels, 1984), 142–4Google Scholar , fig. 66, pl. lxxxiii, cat C34; Boucher, S., Récherches sur les Bronzes Figurés de Gaule Pré-Romaine et Romaine (Ecole Française de Rome, 1976), 164–70.Google Scholar

38 Henig, op. cit., (note 35), 138–41; also Antiq. Journ. lxiv (1984), 387–9 and lxvi (1986).

39 Bartlett, Richard, Essex Journal xx (1985), 55–6Google Scholar and references there cited; Henig, M., A Handbook of Roman Art (Oxford, 1983), 149–50 and ill. 118. I am most grateful to Esther Cameron for bringing the former reference to my attention.Google Scholar