Rights Holder: York Museums Trust
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Unique ID: YORYM-1D793D
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published
An incomplete and probably burnt cooper alloy zoomorphic brooch of Roman date. The brooch is in the form of a hare or rabbit running right. The hind quarters have been lost to a break which shows signs of melting and only one foreleg remains. The head of the animal is ovate with an elongated ear projecting from the upper edge. The head is connected to the ovate body by a narrowed neck and one long foreleg projects, extending forwards, from the lower front edge.
The reverse is irregular with numerous melted protrusions which may represent the remains of a hinge, catchplate and pin.
While the hare is indigenous to Britain the rabbit was "spread across Europe from Spain, with help from the Romans, and its earliest known introduction into England was by the Normans in the twelfth century AD" (Hattatt, 1982, p.162). It is therefore likely that the current example represents a hare rather than a rabbit.
Class: zoomorphic (hare/rabbit)
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: ROMAN
Period from: ROMAN
Period to: ROMAN
Date from: Circa AD 100
Date to: Circa AD 200
Quantity: 1
Length: 27.7 mm
Width: 29.4 mm
Thickness: 3.8 mm
Weight: 5.6 g
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Other reference: YMT : E04566
4 Figure: TA1079
Four figure Latitude: 54.19497021
Four figure longitude: -0.31546338
1:25K map: TA1079
1:10K map: TA17NW
Grid reference source: From a paper map
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
No references cited so far.