PENANNULAR RING

A complete gold Late Bronze Age penannular ring possibly gold plated with a copper alloy core, dating to the period 1150-750 BC.

Description: The penannular ring is evenly made with regularly banding of dark sivery brown lines expanding on the outside edgfe. No clear evidence of a copper-alloy core is visible and the internatal terminals appear to be solid gold

Measurements: 17.24mm long, 16.23mm high, 6.54mm thick and 9g in weight

Discussion: From NMGW-04216C 'The penannular ring belongs to a class of artefact which has been termed 'hair-rings' and 'ring-money' (Taylor 1980, Eogan 1994, 1997, Hobbs 2003, Meeks et al 2008 and O'Connor et al 2008). Their function remains uncertain, although it is likely that they were personal adornments, possibly worn on the ears or nose, rather than being hair-ornaments or items of exchange'. A number of such rings have been reported to the PAS and declared treasure in recent years. E.g banded plated example PAS-011055 (2016T920), plane plated SUSS-1CBAB0 (2017T984) rolled up tube LANCUM-80A136 (2011T499). The weight of this example is slightly higher than many of the plated examples, but the banding along its circumference means it is not possible to say for certain if it is plated or not.

Conclusion: It is therefore clear that this penannular ring dates to before 1720 and thus as the object is made of more than 10% precious metals, it constitutes potential Treasure under the stipulations of The Treasure Act 1996.