A fragment of a silver spoon, almost certainly of Roman date. The fragment consists of part of the handle, of circular cross-section, in the form of unevenly twisted thick wire - the end of the handle is broken and missing. At the bowl end, the handle is square in section, and has a solid, quarter-circle offset with rat's tail onto a fragment of the bowl, probably oval or pear-shaped originally, but now almost entirely missing.
The surface gives the appearance of having been heavily cleaned.
Discussion: it is possible that the fragment has been deliberately created, i.e. that this should be considered Hacksilber - other single finds of Hacksilber are known from Britain (Hobbs 2013). No exact parallel can be found for the spoon. The twisted wire handle is similar to the handle of a toothpick/ear cleaner from the Hoxne treasure (Johns 2010, cat. 153; BM 1994,0408.153), also broken across the blade, but with no offset. The offset is fairly similar to a spoon fragment (possibly also Hacksilber) from Thorndon, Suffolk (PAS SF9749; Hobbs 2013, cat. 13).
Date: probably fourth century AD
References:
Hobbs, R. 2013. 'Stray finds of Hacksilber in Roman Britain?', in F. Hunter & K.S. Painter (eds.), Late Roman Silver. The Traprain Treasure in context. Edinburgh: 291-304.
Johns, C.M. 2010. The Hoxne late Roman treasure. Gold jewellery and silver plate. London.
A fragment of a silver spoon, almost certainly of Roman date. The fragment consists of part of the handle, of circular cross-section, in the form of unevenly twisted thick wire - the end of the handle is broken and missing. At the bowl end, the handle is square in section, and has a solid, quarter-circle offset with rat's tail onto a fragment of the bowl, probably oval or pear-shaped originally, but now almost entirely missing.
The surface gives the appearance of having been heavily cleaned.
Discussion: it is possible that the fragment has been deliberately created, i.e. that this should be considered Hacksilber - other single finds of Hacksilber are known from Britain (Hobbs 2013). No exact parallel can be found for the spoon. The twisted wire handle is similar to the handle of a toothpick/ear cleaner from the Hoxne treasure (Johns 2010, cat. 153; BM 1994,0408.153), also broken across the blade, but with no offset. The offset is fairly similar to a spoon fragment (possibly also Hacksilber) from Thorndon, Suffolk (PAS SF9749; Hobbs 2013, cat. 13).
Date: probably fourth century AD
References:
Hobbs, R. 2013. 'Stray finds of Hacksilber in Roman Britain?', in F. Hunter & K.S. Painter (eds.), Late Roman Silver. The Traprain Treasure in context. Edinburgh: 291-304.
Johns, C.M. 2010. The Hoxne late Roman treasure. Gold jewellery and silver plate. London.
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.
Seen by the Treasure Valuation Committee at its meeting of 5/12/2013
A RDF representation of PAS-E38F8A
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PAS-E38F8A
PAS-E38F8A
GB
en-GB
The Trustees of the British Museum
The Trustees of the British Museum
1
http://purl.org/NET/Claros/vocab#Thumbnail
Attribute as courtesy of the British Museum
A thumbnail image of PAS-E38F8A
Silver
Primary material of object
Complete
By Attribution 3.0
The period from for the object
Attribute as courtesy of the British Museum
A full resolution image of PAS-E38F8A
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