FINGER RING

An elaborate and unusual gold finger ring with blue glass setting, probably dating to the third century AD. The hoop of the finger ring is sub-rectangular with an internal diameter of 13.5mm and an external diameter of 14mm. The hoop has been hammered from sheet gold. Irregular hammer marks are visible on its external surface and a join is visible on its internal surface. At its base, the hoop has a width of 4mm. This expands at the shoulders to a maximum width of 10mm. A cylindrical bezel extends from the centre of the widest part of the hoop. The bezel has a diameter of 8mm at its base and widens to a diameter of 9mm at the point where it meets the setting. Approximately 1mm below the point where the bezel ends, the circumference of the bezel is decorated with a 'skirt' of gold, which has been applied irregularly so that the join is apparent in places. This 'skirt' measures 2mm in width and extends at a 45 degree angle downwards. The upper surface of the 'skirt' is decorated with incised radiating lines, resembling a sunburst pattern. The bezel itself is set with a spherical blue glass sphere measuring 8mm in diameter, decorated with three white, circular swirls. The upper surface of the sphere is chipped and only half of it is visible. It extends 4mm beyond the bezel. The size of the glass bead and its positioning suggest that it has been recycled and indeed parallels such as an example from Jericho, Aberdeenshire in the Aberdeen University Museum Collection (Accession Number: ABDUA:15505) suggest that the bead or sphere is Late Iron Age in date (Elizabeth Foulds, pers. comm.) From the base of the hoop to the tip of the setting, the ring measures 22m in height. Including the skirt, the bezel has a diameter of 12mm. The thickness of the hoop varies, depending on the degree of hammering. At its base, it measures 0.68mm in thickness.

The finger ring does not fit within existing typologies of Roman finger rings. This is perhaps understandable given the fact that the bezel appears to have originally formed part of an earring of Allason-Jones Type 11 which have been dated to the third century AD (Allason-Jones 1988, Fig. 1). An example from the vicus at Vindolanda offering a particularly close parallel (Allason-Jones 1989, 59, No. 67 and Figure 3 ; Vindolanda Acc. No. 2470, excavation no. PSB 80/30). However the hammered and faceted hoop can be paralleled, particularly in an example from Vindolanda (Birley and Greene 2006, 123, SF 300 and Fig. 3.3 on page 132) which was found in a context dating to the period AD 200 to AD 213.