Rights Holder: Oxfordshire County Council
CC License:
Our images can be used under a CC BY attribution licence (unless stated otherwise).
Unique ID: BERK-A03B79
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
An incomplete cast copper alloy bucket escutcheon or other mount of Late Iron Age to Early Roman date. The mount is in the form of a stylised bovine head with forward projecting horns, moulded rounded eyes and muzzel and small sideways-protruding ears (one of the ears is broken and missing). The surviving ear has several short vertical linear scores as decoration, but this is the only additional decoration on the mount. Projecting from the top of the animal's head is a long rectangular sectioned shank or neck which expands into a suspension loop for the handle of the bucket. A smaller loop is situated directly below the muzzle. Asmall round rivet hole extends through the thickness of the mount and is located slightly off-centre between the animal's eyes. The reverse of the animal's head is hollow and appears to retain traces of a possible lead-based solder.
A good number of these bovine bucket mounts have been recorded by the PAS although they are of varying form; those closest to this example include NMS-E2A312, HESH-178702, WAW-342131, BH-1729A7 and LIN-EF25D3. Bovine mounts were made from the Late Iron Age (c. 100 BC) into the early Roman period; there is also some indication that they continued to be made into the early-medieval period (see for example YORYM-65AA92). Comparable bovine mounts have also been found in excavations, for example at the Welsh legionary fortress of Usk (Manning 1995: 198/fig. 53, no. 14). The naturalistic elements of the example recorded here suggests an early-Roman date, c. AD 43-200. Other examples, with more stylised Iron Age traits, are illustrated and discussed in Stead (1996:56) and Jope (2000), plate 173, e-h & plate 166.
This has been noted as an interesting find by the recorder.
Class:
Vessel/Bucket
Sub class: Bovine (Bull's head)
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: ROMAN
Subperiod from: Late
Period from: IRON AGE
Subperiod to: Early
Period to: ROMAN
Date from: Circa AD 43
Date to: Circa AD 200
Quantity: 1
Length: 64.2 mm
Width: 27.27 mm
Thickness: 14.1 mm
Weight: 29.2 g
This information is restricted for your access level.
Other reference: OXPAS2016.282
Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Cast
Decoration style: Zoomorphic
Completeness: Incomplete
4 Figure: SP4511
Four figure Latitude: 51.79584651
Four figure longitude: -1.34888925
1:25K map: SP4511
1:10K map: SP41SE
Grid reference source: From a paper map
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 10 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jope, E.M. | 2000 | Early Celtic Art in the British Isles | Oxford | Oxford University Press | |||
Stead, I.M. | 1996 | Celtic Art in Britain before the Roman Conquest | British Museum Press |