MIRROR

4 glass beads, 3 stone beads, 2 copper alloy brooches, one pair of tweezers, one fragmented Bronze mirror and a silver plated copy of a denarius serratus.
Date: Late Iron Age

Report to H.M Coroner for western Dorset District

2010 T415 Mirror burial from near Portesham, Dorset

Circumstances of discovery

Description

1. Copper-alloy Rosette/Thistle type brooch.

Dimensions: 47mm x 15mm x 18mm; Weight: 6 g

2. Silver-plated copper-alloy Denarius Serratus, late Republican. Date - 83-82 BC. There is a circular perforation just off centre.

Diameter: 18mm; weight: 3g

3. Pair of copper-alloy tweezers.

Length: 60mm; Weight: 4g

4. Glass bead - dark purple with white bands. Resembles aspects of Guido's class 9 glass beads (Guido 1978: Pl. III) found throughout southern England from the mid-1st century BC. Unable to find a direct parallel.

Diameter 32mm; Weight: 22g

5. Copper-alloy Langton Down brooch.

Weight: 6 g

6. Glass bead - blue with yellow swirl. Resembles Guido's class 7b (Guido 1978: Pl. I) - beads from southern England dating from the mid-1st century BC.

Diameter: 32mm; Weight: 17 g

7. Glass bead - clear glass with yellow pattern. 'Hanging Langford' type, Guido's class 5 (Guido 1978: 51-3) dating from 2nd century BC - 1st century AD.

Diameter 29mm; Weight: 11 g

8. Small purple glass bead. Guido's group 6 (Guido 1978: Pl. 2), known in southern England from 1st century BC onwards.

Diameter: 14mm; Weight: 1 g

9. Large stone bead - identified as 'Purbeck Marble'.

Diameter: 43mm; Weight 26g

10. Stone bead - identified as 'eroded limestone'.

Diameter: 29mm; Weight 14g

11. Stone bead - identified as 'flint with fossils'.

Diameter: 22mm; Weight 5g

12. Copper-alloy spiral bracelet/armlet. The metal is circular in cross-section and tapers to a point at either end.

Weight 50g

13. Copper-alloy mirror in multiple pieces comprising of two substantive sections and multiple plate fragments. One portion represents the majority of a decorated, kidney-shaped plate. The decoration is inscribed or chased to a high level. The pattern is difficult to reconstruct but seems to form a lyre-loop. The infilling of motifs is unusual and is formed of a rocked pattern reminiscent of some of the infilling on the mirrors from Old Warden in Bedfordshire, Holcombe in Devon and Chettle in Dorset.

The second large piece comprises of the handle and a section of the mirror plate. The handle is Joy (2010) Type IV - loop within the grip. It has a large terminal loop at the bottom of which is a raised knob. The grip is unusual and is formed of a single loop. The majority of handles of this type have two loops. The arms are quite short. In the centre of the arms is a ring similar to the handles of the Pegsdon mirror and the handle from Portland.

14. Fragmentary green glass bead.

Discussion

The copper-alloy mirror is characteristic of the late Iron Age in southern Britain. Around 30 similar, decorated mirrors are known mostly from graves dating to c.80 BC - mid 1st century AD (Joy 2010; Sealey 2006). The closest geographical parallel is the mirror from nearby Portesham which dates to around the time of the Roman conquest (Fitzpatrick 1997).

The spiral bracelet/armring is of a form which dates to the late Iron Age. Parallels made from copper-alloy and precious metal dating to the early 1st century BC can be seen from the site of Snettisham, Norfolk; although the metal is most often rectangular in cross-section rather than round. The terminals of two bracelets from Burton Fleming overlap but these examples both have deep incised ornament in the area of the overlap (see Stead 1979: 74-5).

Tweezers are found in late Iron Age contexts including graves (Hill 1997). They are more usually found as part of a cosmetic set, as in the mirror grave from Portesham, but this particular pair of tweezers does not have a ring for suspension from a chatelaine. The coin is late Republican in date (83-82 BC). It has very little wear, perhaps suggesting it was not in circulation for long before it was perforated and perhaps worn as part of a necklace or as an amulet. Even though the glass beads are all very different, they all belong to types found in southern England from the 1st century BC onwards (Guido 1978).

Rosette/Thistle and Langton Down brooches are found in late Iron Age and early Roman contexts (e.g. May 1996; Stead & Rigby 1989). The Langton Down brooch dates from the last decade of 1st century BC - AD50/60 although it is very hard to give a more precise date and trace the evolution of the type (Mackreth in Jackson & Potter 1996: 318). Rosette/Thistle brooches share a similar date range dating from c.15 BC - AD 50/60 (see Stead & Rigby 1989: 101).

The Portesham mirror was found in what is known as a Durotrigian inhumation. Durotrigian, or south Dorset burials are a recognised burial rite found throughout the modern county of Dorset, except in the north, dating both before and after the Roman conquest (Woodward 1993). This material also comes from a Durotrigian type burial with the body buried in a characteristic crouched or flexed position. In this instance the grave-goods are unusual as no pottery was placed in the grave. This grave, alongside the Portesham mirror burial, is one of the richest Durotrigian burials. Only two others compare with them: the grave of a 25-30 year old male, containing a brooch, sword, scabbard, baldric, spear, hammer and spindle-whorl found at Whitcombe (Fitzpatrick 1997a: 68); and a burial with a horse and horse-bit from Fordington (Woodward 1993).

In summary, all of these artefacts come from a well-furnished Durotrigian type grave, which dates from c. 15BC - AD 50/60; most likely around the time of the Roman conquest based on the dating of other mirror burials (Joy 2010; Sealey 2006). Although the actual date of the burial could be in the very early Roman period, the mirror and the spiral bracelet/armlet are both culturally Iron Age.

Conclusion

The mirror and the spiral bracelet/armring both date to the late Iron Age. This material is therefore eligible as Treasure under the new Treasure Order (2002) being a find containing two or more prehistoric base-metal artefacts.

References

Fitzpatrick, A. P. 1997a. A 1st-century AD 'Durotrigian' inhumation burial with a decorated Iron Age mirror from Portesham, Dorset. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 118: 51-70.

Guido, M. 1978. The glass beads of the prehistoric and Roman periods in Britain and Ireland. London: Society of Antiquaries.

Hill, J. D. 1997. 'The end of one kind of body and the beginning of another kind of body'? Toilet instruments and 'Romanization' in southern England during the first century AD. In: A. Gwilt and C. Haselgrove (eds), Re-constructing Iron Age Societies, pp. 96-107. Oxford: Oxbow Monograph. 71.

Jackson, R. & Potter, T. 1996. Excavations at Stonea, Cambridgeshire 1980-85. London: British Museum Press.

Joy, J. 2010. Iron Age mirrors: a biographical approach. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

May, J. 1996. Dragonby: A Report on Excavations at an Iron Age and Romano-British Settlement in North Lincolnshire. Oxford: Oxbow Monographs.

Sealey, P. R. 2006. Two decorated Iron Age mirror finds from Essex. In: P. Ottaway (ed.), A Victory Celebration: papers on the archaeology of Colchester and Late Iron Age-Roman Britain presented to Philip Crummy, pp. 11-18. Colchester: Friends of Colchester Archaeological Trust.

Stead, I. M. 1979. The Arras culture. York: The Yorkshire Philosophical Society.

Stead, I. M. & Rigby, V. 1989. Verulamium: the King Harry Lane site. London: English Heritage.

Woodward, A. 1993. Discussion. In: D. E. Farwell and T. I. Molleson (eds), Poundbury Volume 2: the cemeteries, pp. 215-39. Dorchester: Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Monograph Series Number 11.

Jody Joy 5th August 2010

Curator of European Iron Age

British Museum

Great Russell Street

London WC1B 3DG