Rights Holder: Cambridgeshire County Council
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SPOON
Unique ID: CAM-559373
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published 
Fragment of Roman silver spoon with oval bowl and short 'rat tail' on the underside; the bowl is broken, incomplete and distorted. The handle is square sectioned and broken about one-third along the shaft above the offset, with the remainder slightly twisted and bent. The offset is in the form of an open scroll. In the bowl are the remains of a punched ligatured inscription 'VIV[A]S' ('may you live'); the 'A' is very hard to discern. The inscription would have begun with a name, but this is no longer visible.
Discussion: such spoons are a well known late Roman type. There are good parallels for example in the Thetford treasure (Johns & Potter 1983).
Notes:
Note: this item is made substantially of silver and is more than 300 years old, and thus qualifies as treasure as stipulated in the Treasure Act 1996.
5/5/11 TVC valuation: £40
Class: Baptism
Subsequent actions
Current location of find: Royston Museum
Subsequent action after recording: Donated to museum after being declared Treasure
Treasure details
Treasure case tracking number: 2010T72
Chronology
Broad period: ROMAN
Period from: ROMAN
Period to: ROMAN
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 78.99 mm
Width: 13.38 mm
Thickness: 3.26 mm
Weight: 9.78 g
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Monday 18th January 2010
Personal details
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Other reference numbers
Treasure case number: 2010T72
Materials and construction
Spatial metadata
Region: Eastern (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Cambridgeshire (County)
District: South Cambridgeshire (District)
To be known as: South Cambridgeshire Area
Spatial coordinates
Grid reference source: From a paper map
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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