FINGER RING

A Viking gold ring ring which consists of a double-banded hoop made from a slightly concavo-convex strip with the ends drawn into wires at the back of the hoop, which are then tightly wound round a constricted section of the strip; diameter, 24 mm (max); height at front, 13 mm. The bands are very slightly apart at the front and sides. They are both incised with a median groove decorated above and below with two rows of small, punched, apex-to-apex triangles, creating slightly raised lozenge shapes, although the spacing of the punches is irregular in places.

The form of the ring is closely comparable with two Viking examples also of gold in the collection of the British Museum, with only two coils each from Saddleworth Moor (Greater Manchester) and Ireland, although they are made of rods rather than a strip (registration nos. MME 1915,12-6,1 and 1849,3-1,27 respectively). The form is further paralleled by a distinctive type of coiled silver armring made in Ireland in the late 9th/early 10th centuries and developed from a simpler Viking type (J. Sheehan, 1991-2, 'Coiled arm-rings - an Hiberno-Viking silver armring type', Journal of Irish Archaeology, 6, pp. 41-53; the description of the Saddleworth ring as silver in the caption to pl. 6 is incorrect. Thanks are due to Prof. J. Graham-Campbell for this reference). A further example of this type was recently reported as Treasure (ref. 2007 T19)

Surface metal analysis conducted at the BritishMuseum indicated an approximate gold content for the ring of 83-86%, a silver content of 11-14%, and a copper content of 2-4%. The ring weighs 13.68 grams. The ring from Sedbergh would therefore qualify as Treasure under two of the stipulated criteria of the Treasure Act: it is more than 300 years old and the precious metal content exceeds 10%.

B.M. Ager