FINGER RING

Roman silver finger ring of keeled type. This has an oval hoop that has a thick rectangular cross-section, the outside of the hoop is decorated with two recessed lines that runs its length. The ends of the hoop terminate in triangular shoulders which expand from the hoop to the bezel, these are decorated with five sets of recessed lines that radiate outwards from the hoop towards the bezel, plus a scrollwork spiral in each of the upper corners. The bezel is a flat undecorated oval panel, often the bezel would have held a setting for a stone or intaglio but that does not appear to be the case in this example,

Similar examples are recorded on the database such as GLO-875043 and GLO-EF3774 from which the bellow discussion has been taken.

An exact parallel was excavated at Lydney Roman Temple, Gloucestershire, this particular example was dated to the late third century to fourth century (Wheeler and Wheeler, 1932, 82, 55), although the 4th century date appears to be rather tentative. A similar example was also excavated in the town of Cirencester (McWhirr, 1986, 105-106), this example was dated to the third century. A third example was excavated from a grave in Colchester the deposit was dated to c320-c450 (Crummy, 1983, 49-50), therefore this style of finger ring is more characteristic of the third century, therefore a third to early fourth century date has been ascribed.