AESTEL

A complete gold object comprising a hollow dome with a projecting socket and separately-soldered back-plate.

The dome is decorated all over its upper surface with filigree and granulation. In the centre is a raised circular setting comprising a strip of gold surrounded by a beaded wire collar, and set with a small blue glass cabochon. Around this is a lozenge-shaped field delimited by a single strand of gold beaded wire, which overall gives a cruciform effect. The outer terminal of each cross arm is marked with a cluster of pellets. The lozengiform field is filled with granulation, or tiny gold pellets. Four crescent-shaped fields outside the lozenge are decorated with filigree scrolls with pellets at their centres, and clusters of pellets around them. The base of the dome has a beaded wire border, outside of which is an additional border made up from individual gold pellets, some of which are missing.

The socket is rectangular in plan and semi-circular in section, with a single vertical rivet-hole at its terminal. Its lower left and right edges are bordered with a single strand of beaded wire. Two strands of beaded wire run transversely along the top of the socket at its junction with the dome, and similarly at the socket opening. A single beaded wire strand outlines the top part of the rivet-hole. Two beaded wire strands run along the top of the socket, bifurcating at the dome end into tiny scrolls each filled with a single gold pellet. A line of individual gold pellets has been applied along the seam between these two wire strands.

The filigree and granulation is fairly worn, with the definition between individual beads and pellets lost in some places.

The separate back plate is plain and flat. There is a rivet hole at the base of the socket terminal, and another small sub-circular hole slightly off-centre through the dome. This may be damage rather than functional.

Dimensions: Length: 30.76 mm. Diameter of domed head: 17.59mm. Depth of domed head: 8.22mm. Width of socket: 6.86mm. Weight: 5.82 g.

Discussion: This artefact appears to belong to a group of objects that have been interpreted as pointers (often referred to as 'aestels') used while reading books. It is thought that the riveted sockets held a shaft for pointing at text, and the flat bottoms helped them slide across the page (Webster and Backhouse 1991, pp. 281-283, nos. 258-260).

All surviving 'aestels' differ slightly in size, form and decoration but most share typical features of domed body, riveted socket and flat base. The best-known is the Alfred Jewel, also the largest (length 62mm) and most elaborate, set with rock crystal, an anthropomorphic enamel and an inscription (Ashmolean Museum; Hinton 2008; Webster and Backhouse 1991, no. 260). The Drinkstone artefact compares far better with several smaller examples:

• The Minster Lovell jewel (Ashmolean Museum; Hinton 2008) is roughly the same length (31mm) and also features extensive granulation on the dome; beaded wire bordering the socket and rivet-hole; a vertical socket perforation; and a separate soldered back-plate. The enamel setting is more elaborate than the Drinkstone example's single glass cabochon, but the decorative field also features a cruciform motif.

• The Bowleaze Cove jewel (British Museum; Webster and Backhouse 1991, nos. 258-9) is of similar length (28mm), has a similarly-made central glass cabochon setting; a dome decorated with granulation; and a socket with beaded wire bordering the socket opening, and a vertical perforation.

• The Warminster jewel (Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum), similarly sized; its dome formed from rock crystal in a gold frame, but the frame has a similarly-made central glass cabochon setting and forms a cruciform design over the dome; plus the socket has a vertical perforation.

• Harrogate, Yorkshire (PAS database SWYOR-69C958), similarly sized with a cruciform design on the dome executed in filigree, including spirals with pellets at the centres (although made with plain rather than beaded wire), and wire running along the top of the socket (this time riveted horizontally).

Other examples of gold 'aestels' are known, and while they feature filigree and / or glass settings, they differ markedly in shape from the Drinkstone example e.g. the so-called 'Yorkshire aestel' (PAS database SWYOR-C75C64) shaped like an animal's head, and a pear-shaped artefact from Borg in Lofoten, Norway (Munch, Johansen and Roesdahl 2003, pp. 246 - 247, fig. 9H.8).

The 'aestels' described above are dated to the second half of the ninth century, and it is likely that the Drinkstone example is of equivalent date.

Date: Second half of the ninth century

As this object is made of more than 10% precious metal and is over 300 years old, it constitutes potential Treasure under the Treasure Act 1996.

References:

Webster, L. and Backhouse, J. 1991. The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900. London: British Museum Press

Hinton, D. A., 2008. The Alfred Jewel and Other Late Anglo-Saxon Decorated Metalwork. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum

Munch, G. S., Johansen, O. S. and Roesdahl, E. (eds.), 2003. Borg in Lofoten: A Chieftain's Farm in North Norway. Trondheim: Tapir Academic Press

Authors:

Faye Minter, Finds Liaison Officer, Suffolk, Portable Antiquities Scheme

Dr. Sue Brunning, Curator, Insular Early Medieval Collections, Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory, The British Museum