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A Hoard of Late Roman Rings and Silver Coins from Silchester, Hampshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

M.G. Fulford ,
A. Burnett ,
M. Henig  and
C. Johns
M.G. Fulford
Affiliation:
Dept. of Coins and Metals, The British Museum
A. Burnett
Affiliation:
Dept. of Archaeology, University of Reading
M. Henig
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford
C. Johns
Affiliation:
Dept. of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities, The British Museum
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Extract

The rings and coins described below were found in a field adjacent to the presumed Iron Age earthwork in Rampier Copse, immediately to the south-west of the walled town of Calleva Atrebatum and about ioo m south of the road to Sorviodunum (FIG. 1). They were discovered by Mr J. Young and two colleagues using metal detectors after the field had been ploughed in the winter of 1986–7. In the autumn of 1985 a single gold ring (FIG. 2, No. 5) and four silver coins had been recovered from the same area and it was suggested that they had once formed part of a hoard. At the Coroner's inquest in December 1987 it was reported that the new finds were widely scattered and it was for this reason that the court decided that they were not treasure-trove. However, given the rarity of single finds of such coins and rings as opposed to the instances where they have been found in association with each other, it would be perverse to suppose that they did not originate from at least one hoard. Indeed, after the discovery had been reported, one of us visited the field in the spring of 1987 and noted that the area of greatest disturbance was confined to a small area adjacent to the field boundary and the tail of the counterscarp bank of the earthwork at SU 63486212 (FIG. 1). It is likely that both sets of finds derive from the same hoard and it is on the assumption of a common origin that the new finds are reported here.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 20 , November 1989 , pp. 219 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © M.G. Fulford, A. Burnett, M. Henig and C. Johns 1989. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 We are grateful to them for their help in making the collection available for study.

2 Fulford, M.G., Henig, M. and Johns, C., Britannia xviii (1987), 279–281CrossRefGoogle Scholar and pl. XXII.

3 We are grateful to Mr J. Cook, the landowner, for his ready agreement to allow this excavation and to Mr J. Stacey, the farm-manager, for his general assistance. The excavation was undertaken by Mr A. Barber and Mr S. Rippon of Dept. of Archaeology, University of Reading and we thank them for their hard work.

4 For all the X-ray fluorescence analyses, we acknowledge Dr M. Tite, Keeper of the British Museum Research Laboratory, and Mr Duncan Hook, who carried out the work.

5 Henkel, F., Die römischen Fingerringe der Rheinlande und der benachbarten Gebiete (Berlin, 1913).Google Scholar

6 Johns, C. and Potter, T., The Thetford Treasure: Roman jewellery and silver (London, 1983).Google Scholar

7 Fulford et al., op. cit. (note 2).

8 Johns and Potter, op. cit. (note 6), Nos. 10, 11, 12 and 14.

9 Bushe-Fox, J.P., Fourth Report on the Excavation of the Roman Fort at Richborough, Kent, Soc. Antiq. Res. Rep. xvi (1949), 126Google Scholar, no. 93, pl. xxv.

10 Marshall, F.H., Catalogue of the Finger Rings, Greek, Etruscan and Roman, in the Department of Antiquities, British Museum (London, 1907Google Scholar; reprint 1968), no. 571.

11 Arch. Journ. iii (1846), 162.

12 Kent, J.P.C. and Painter, K.S., Wealth of the Roman World (London, 1977)Google Scholar, Nos. 231 and 232.

13 Henkel, op. cit. (note 5), No. 284.

14 Vágó, Eszter B. and Bona, István, Die Gräberfelder von Intercisa; der spätrömische Südostfriedhof (Budapest, 1976)Google Scholar, Grave 19a, Taf. XXVI, 4a, 4b; Deppert-Lippitz, B., Goldschmuck der Römerzeit im Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseum (Bonn, 1985)Google Scholar, No. 142.

15 Fulford et al., op. cit. (note 2).

16 Henig, M. in King, A. and Henig, M. (eds.), The Roman West in the Third Century. Contributions from Archaeology and History, BAR Int. Ser. 109 (Oxford, 1981), 127–43Google Scholar especially p. 132 and pl. 8.1, no. 7; for fourth-century gold rings from Havering atte Bower and Terling Place, both in Essex and from Tuddenham, Suffolk see Henig, M., A Corpus of Roman Engraved Gemstones from British Sites, BAR Brit. Ser. 8 (2nd ed., Oxford, 1978) 40Google Scholar, cat. no. 362, pl. xli (Havering); cat. no. 581, pl. xlvii (Tuddenham) and cat. no. 724 = VCH Essex III, 186, pl. viii c. 1 (Terling Place).

17 M. Henig, in Johns and Potter, op. cit. (note 6), 30–32.

18 cf. op. cit. (note 2), pl. xxii a.

19 Henig, op. cit. (note 16), cat. no. 166 (also see cat. nos. 158–70, App. 37, 41 holding grapes); Krug, A., ‘Antike Gemmen in Römisch-Germanischen Museum Köln’, BRGK lxi (1980)Google Scholar Nos. 157, 317, 319, 320; Guiraud, Hélène, Intailles et Camées de l'Époque Romaine en Gaule (Territoire français), 48è supplément à Gallia (Paris, 1988), 157–8Google Scholar, no. 594, pl. XLI, found between Giroux and Luçay-le-Libre (Indre), nicolo-glass showing huntsman-satyr accompanied by hound.

20 Johns and Potter, op. cit. (note 6), 78–80, no. 1.

21 Cicero, De finibus, v, 1, 3 tells us that portraits of Epicurus were worn as seals by his followers.

22 Vollenweider, M.-L., Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève. Catalogue Raisonné des Sceaux, Cylindres, Intailles et Camées II Les Portraits, Les Masques de Théatre, Les Symboles Politiques (plates: Mainz, 1976Google Scholar; text: Mainz, 1979) 15, Pl. 5, no. 14; also see pp. 9–14; pls. 3–5, nos. 7–13.

23 Sena Chiesa, G., Gemme del Museo Nazionale di Aquilieia (Aquileia, 1966), 327Google Scholar and pl. xlviii, nos. 945, 946; Guiraud, op. cit. (note 19), 160, no. 618, pl. XLIII.

24 Henig, op. cit. (note 16), 287, pl. xxiv, no. App. 7.

25 The Crispus coin is a Beata Tranquillitas of about 320 from the London mint (RIC VII, London 208); the Magnentius is of the normal two victories with wreath type (RIC VIII, Lyons 145 or 147).

26 Fulford et al., op. cit. (note 2), 281.

27 Britannia xv (1984), 163–68.

28 Johns and Potter, op. cit. (note 6), 68–69.

29 Johns and Potter, op. cit. (note 6).

30 Kent and Painter, op. cit. (note 12), 59.

31 Bastien, P. and Metzger, C., Le Trésor de Beaurains (Wetteren, 1977).Google Scholar