Rights Holder: The Portable Antiquities Scheme
CC License:
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Unique ID: BUC-783718
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published
A cast copper-alloy Roman mount in the form of a sleeping hound from a patera (vessel). The mount is D-shaped in cross-section, with a flat reverse. The features of the dog are moulded, particularly the hunched up hindleg and similarly bent foreleg upon which the dog's head rests. Unlike the relatively well-known series of sitting hound-mounts and brooches known from Roman Britain, this hound is depicted curled up asleep. The dog has a generally smooth body with longitudinal decorative short lines representing fur behind the fore paw and ear which abuts it, the ear formed of a pair of parallel transversly engraved lines. The head and snout are relatively short and are shown facing forwards. The snout appears slightly open and a transversely inised line above probably represents an eye. The forepaw is located beneath the head and ear, as noted, and is decorated with a series of incised lines depicting the claws.
Emerging from the dog's back is a rectangular tab decorated with three transversely incised lines, one at each end, and one in the middle. On its reverse is a V-shaped channel, deepest at the centre, to accommodate a separate element, probably a ring. The reverse of the mount in general features traces of a probable lead solder, which would have attached the mount to a vessel, specifically a patera.
It measures 32.14 mm in length, 24.77 mm in width and 6.19mm in thickness; it weighs 23.09 g
A similar mount was found at Clay Farm, Cambridge (Evans 2008, 164/Pl. 3.13), in association with a ram's head handle terminal and three feet from the patera. A similar mount, though with the dog's head tucked under its body, instead, can be found on this database: LIN-F49915.
Class:
patera
Sub class: mount
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: ROMAN
Period from: ROMAN
Period to: ROMAN
Date from: Circa AD 50
Date to: Circa AD 300
Quantity: 1
Length: 32.14 mm
Width: 24.77 mm
Thickness: 6.19 mm
Weight: 23.09 g
Date(s) of discovery: Saturday 14th November 2015
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Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Complete
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Evans, C. | 2008 | Borderlands. The Archaeology of the Adenbrooke's Environs, South Cambridge. | Cambridge | CAU | 164/Pl. 3.13 |