Royal wedding souvenir

April 21st, 2011 by Laura Burnett

With Royal wedding fever all over media I was interested to come across this find which shows souvenirs of Royal weddings are nothing new. It is a silver heart shaped locket found in two pieces with moulded portraits of a crowned Charles II on one side (flanked by the incised initials C/R) and his wife, Katherine of Braganza, (flanked by K/R) on the other. It commemorates their marriage in 1662 and was found near the site of the Battle of Sedgemoor, which took place on 6th July 1685. It is possible that the locket was lost by someone fighting on the side of the King during the battle.

SOM-C6EDD1: Locket commemorating the marriage of Charles II and Katherine of Braganza

Having been through the Treasure process (2004 T247), the locket was acquired by Somerset County Museum (accession number TTNCM 202/2005) and will be on display in the Museum of Somerset when it opens in the summer. Half of a similar locket was featured in the September 2004 issue of Treasure Hunting magazine (p. 17) suggesting it was a souvenir produced in some numbers rather than an individual commemorative item.

A more commonly found item which is also thought to commemorate this wedding is a type of cufflink, found in both silver (LVPL-BF30A6 and PAS-625C72) and cheaper lead alloy copies (LON-306542 and ESS-B32D14). They show either two crowned hearts or clasped hands with a crown above and two flaming hearts below. Although items with this design are thought to have originally been made to commemorate the marriage of Charles II and Katherine of Braganza the design continued in use probably into the 18th century as a general symbol of love and/or marriage.

Other Royal wedding souvenirs recorded by the PAS include a copper alloy medalet from the wedding of the Prince Regent (the future George IV) and Caroline of Brunswick in 1795: HAMP-0F4355and this Roman Denarius (DUR-3D7720) of Plautilla wife of the Emperor Caracalla minted in Rome 202 AD to celebrate their wedding. For other wedding related finds see this search on our database.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (3)

Forthcoming Closure of the Somerset County Museum

April 11th, 2008 by Daniel Pett

The Somerset County Museum will close to the public on Saturday 19th April at 5pm for a Heritage Lottery Funded restoration and refurbishment.

Naomi Payne, Finds Liaison Officer for Somerset, will still be able to take in and return finds for identification and recording at the Museum on weekdays until August 2008. It is advisable to phone ahead to make sure she will be in the office when you wish to visit. Naomi’s direct dial telephone number is 01823 320206 and the Museum office telephone number is 01823 320200.

Naomi will be moving to the Record Office in Obridge Road, Taunton, in August 2008 and will be based there until new purpose built offices at Silk Mills are opened.

The Museum is due to reopen as the Museum of Somerset in August 2010.

Posted in Events | Comments (0)

Recent finds of note

February 5th, 2008 by npayne

These two objects were recently discovered near Charlton Mackrell in South Somerset. They are both pretty unusual for Somerset and it has been difficult to find a close parallel for the second.

The first find is a copper alloy knobbed terret harness fitting (SOM-9455E3) which probably dates from the second century AD. Terret rings were metal loops which served as rein guides on horse-drawn vehicles. Terrets would have been positioned on the yoke, like on this reconstruction (see below) of the Newbridge chariot which has recently been built by a Somerset craftsman, Robert Hurford, and is on display at the Somerset County Museum in Taunton until is taken to its new home at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
SOM-9455E3

PAS record number: SOM-9455E3
Object type: Harness fitting
Broadperiod: Roman
County of discovery: Somerset
Stable url: http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/203963

The knobbed terret is a Roman type (rather than Iron Age, when terrets first appeared) and although they are occasionally found in 1st century contexts most seem to be of 2nd century AD date. The terret consists of a oval loop which has a lozenge-shaped cross-section around most of its circumference, with the exception of a short section which has a narrowed rectangular cross-section in between a pair of wider collars. This part of the terret would have been secured onto the yoke (see reconstruction below). The loop becomes slightly thicker before it joins the collars, which have oval cross-sections and decoration in the form of a circumferential grooved line. Originally there would have been three knops projecting from the outside of the loop, but one of these (that opposite the narrowed section) has broken off. The two surviving knops are sub-spherical and each is decorated with a single circumferential grooved line. They are purely decorative.

Click here to view the Chariot Maker’s website.

The second find is a copper alloy toggle (SOM-946D43) of late Iron Age or early Roman date. The toggle is cylindrical with a loop on one side, which would have been used to attach the toggle to clothing or horse harness. The loop has a broader curving central section which narrows slightly on each side before flaring out again at the point where it meets the main body of the toggle. At each end of the cylinder is a slightly expanded terminal which contains a deep and wide groove on the side opposite the loop. There is a further similar feature in the centre of the bar. Lipped decoration such as this is more commonly seen on late Iron Age terret harness fittings.

SOM-946D43SOM-946D43

PAS record number: SOM-946D43
Object type: Toggle
Broadperiod: Iron Age
County of discovery: Somerset
Stable url: http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/203968

Posted in Interesting Finds | Comments (0)

Interesting finds from Somerset

November 27th, 2007 by npayne

Below are details of a couple of interesting Somerset finds which have been reported through the Scheme in recent weeks. The first is a near complete socketed axehead of late Bronze Age (c. 1000-800BC) date (SOM-C03882). This is a fairly plain bronze axe which fits into the the South-eastern A1 category of the Ewart Park phase. What makes it particularly interesting is that it is a garden found, discovered whilst digging new flowerbeds in a house in Langford Budville, near Wellington.

SOM-C03882PAS record number: SOM-C03882
Object type: Socketed axehead
Broadperiod: Bronze Age
County of discovery: Somerset
Stable url: http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/201169

An unusual early Roman brooch (SOM-304001) has come up in the Charlton Mackrell area. This is a variant of an aesica brooch, of which only two Somerset examples have previously been recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database. The brooch has been cast in two pieces which are rivetted together and is undecorated. There is a good unprovenced parallel in Richard Hattatt’s ‘Visual Catalogue’ (2000). There are some fairly strong regional variations in the distribution of Roman brooches which Sally Worrell has been researching. The most common type recorded for Somerset is the T-shape as can be seen on the graph below.

SOM-304001PAS record number: SOM-304001
Object type: Brooch
Broadperiod: Roman
County of discovery: Somerset
Stable url: http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/200538

A lovely flint chisel arrowhead (SOM-AFA743) has been recorded from Queen Camel. This is a type characteristic of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. It is wedge-shaped and has been invasively retouched over most of the dorsal surface and part of the ventral surface (to sharpen the business end).

SOM-AFA743PAS record number: SOM-AFA743
Object type: Arrowhead
Broadperiod: Neolithic
County of discovery: Somerset
Stable url: http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/201097

Posted in Interesting Finds | Comments (0)

Corfe Castle Rally

September 18th, 2007 by Daniel Pett

Recording at CorfeCiorstaidh and i went to the Minelab owners rally at Corfe Castle (Dorset) last weekend. The rally has taken place over a weekend in September for several years now and there have been some very interesting discoveries. Two of these, a Roman patera (a copper alloy cooking vessel resembling a modern saucepan) and a hoard of late Iron Age staters, prompted the finders to get in touch with the Dorset County Museum and subsequently the Norden Archaeological Project was set up by Peter Woodward, the museum’s curator of archaeology. Survey and small scale excavation have been undertaken by the Dorset County Museum and Terrain Archaeology in order to put the finds into context and discover more about how they came to be where they were found.

This year, two fields were examined in detail by the archaeological project. Fieldwalking was organised concurrently with the metal detecting rally and a structured detecting survey took place. All the discoveries in two fields were marked by the detectorists on the rally and then each find was given a number and the findspot recorded with a total station or a hand-held GPS. All these finds will go to the Dorset County Museum. Several other fields were also detected by the c. 70 Minelab owners who attended the rally and about 100 finds were recorded by PAS and David Connelly, who used a hand-held GPS to pinpoint findspots.

About 75 of these finds will go onto the PAS database; the remainder were post-1700. Finds recorded in detail included medieval hammered coins, post-medieval tokens, a small number of Roman coins and one Roman brooch.

Posted in Events | Comments (0)

Regular finds surgeries at Wells Museum

September 11th, 2007 by npayne

I have recently arranged to hold a new monthly finds event at Wells Museum which will take place on the first Wednesday of each month, between 11am and 3pm. Finds can be brought in for identification and recording on the day, or you can come in anytime the museum is open and drop in items for me to look at the next time  come in. Hopefully I’ll be able to reach more of the detectorists from the eastern part of the county, but of course anyone with archaeological finds (metalwork, pottery, worked flint etc) is very welcome to come along. The first surgery will be on Wednesday 3rd October 2007.

Opening times and other information about Wells Museum can be found at: http://www.wellsmuseum.org.uk/

Posted in Events | Comments (0)

The content contained within the Blog's pages do not represent an official position from any of the organisations associated with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. They are solely those of the post's author.