Rights Holder: The British Museum
CC License:
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Unique ID: PAS-59DAE7
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published
A Roman penannular silver bracelet fragment, comprising part of the slender oval-sectioned hoop, now distorted, and one terminal. The terminal is in the form of a stylised snake-head with neatly-incised jaws, round eyes and skull-markings and hatched sides representing the scaled body.
Snake jewellery, with its important symbolism, was popular over a long period, in Roman Britain as in other provinces of the Roman Empire. The slender, relatively realistic form of this snake bracelet is comparable to an example from Stonea, Cambs. (R. Jackson and T.W. Potter Excavations at Stonea, Cambridgeshire 1980-85, (London, 1996), 334-7, Fig. 106, no. 7).
Date: Precise dating of snake jewellery is usually difficult. This example was probably made within the period 2nd- 3rd century AD.
Dimensions: Length 30.8 mm; width of snake head 4.4 mm.
Weight 2.3 g.
Notes:
In terms of age, and as the object contains a minimum of 10% precious metal, it qualifies as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996.
Class: snake head
Current location of find: Bedford Museum
Subsequent action after recording: Donated to a museum
Treasure case tracking number: 2006T54
Broad period: ROMAN
Period from: ROMAN
Period to: ROMAN
Date from: Circa AD 100
Date to: Circa AD 300
Quantity: 1
Length: 30.8 mm
Width: 4.4 mm
Weight: 2.3 g
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Treasure case number: 2006T54
4 Figure: TL3352
Four figure Latitude: 52.15027565
Four figure longitude: -0.05751798
1:25K map: TL3352
1:10K map: TL35SW
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
No references cited so far.