EAR RING

A fragment of a gold earring probably dating to the first or second century AD. The fragment comprises the trapezoidal suspension plate. It is broken at its apex, but a horizontal seam on the reverse appears to indicate that it split to form two separate plates perhaps to accommodate a gem or cameo. The upper surface of the plate appears to be decorated with three longitudinal ribs. On the reverse of the plate are two gold suspension loops. Each loop is formed from a strip of gold wire which is rectangular in section. These would have been used to suspend two wire chains which would terminate in glass or semi-precious stone beads. The fragment has a width of 10mm, a height of 3mm and a thickness of 0.7mm. The loops measure 2mm in diameter. The fragment weighs 0.27 grams.

The only parallels for this type of earring from Roman Britain come from the first century AD Fenwick Hoard in Colchester, where a pair of complete earrings possessed similar (but plain) trapezoidal suspension plates (Crummy 2016, 16). It was suggested that the earrings were 'likely to be of Italian manufacture.' (Crummy 2016, 16). Visic-Ljubic, E. (2018, 13) Aurum Salonitanus. Rimske nausnice iz Arhelooskog muzeja u Splitu suggests that the type 'appeared in the 1st century BC as a product of the Campanian workshops in southern Italy. They achieved the height of their popularity during the Flavian era, in the latter half of the 1st century, although the spicchio di sfera type already became rare in the first half of the 2nd century, while the a baretta type endured until the 3rd century.' She refers to K Mihovilic 1979: 'Prstenje I nausnice rimskog doba Slovenje', Arheoloski Vestnik 30, 223-39 as her source of information. Parallels are also known from Moesia and Thrace. For example, a pair of ear-rings found in a grave in Souhindol in the Veliko Turnovo region (National Museum in Sofia Inv. No. 5659a) and published by Ludmila Ruseva-Slokoska in her book Roman Jewellery (Sofia 1991, 124) as Cat. nos. 51a and 51b possess the same looped trapezoidal suspension plate. A chance find from Durostorum published as Cat. no. 50a and 50b in the same publication has a similar suspension plate but with three attachment loops (p. 123).