Rights Holder: Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
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Unique ID: WILT-D95DB1
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
A copper circular reisscheiben ingot of medieval to post-medieval date. The ingot is broadly circular and D shaped in cross section. The front face has slight indentations from the water used to cool and subsequently extract the ingot. The reverse face is convex and pitted with a number of perforations from the pitting. The ingot has been analysed with a pXRF and is 99% copper with trace elements.
The ingot is 460mm in diameter and weighs 21500 grams.
The ingot was found within the environs of a Roman small town in the 1980's. The ingot is typical in North East Europe from the late 1st millennium AD and especially into the post-medieval period. Within close proximity three ingots have been recorded including WILT-D96E9A and an example on display in the Wiltshire museum DZSWS:1989.148.
Marcos MartinĂ³n-Torres comments that to produce the ingot a substantial amount of copper is tapped into a forehearth in front of the furnace, and then successive layers of this pool of metal are ripped out as solid copper as they solidify on the top surface (or even freeze, by spraying water). This also explains the decreasing sizes of the ingots as the pool of metal gets smaller towards the narrower, lower part of the pit.
This has been noted as an interesting find by the recorder.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1500
Date to: Circa AD 1700
Quantity: 1
Weight: 21500 g
Diameter: 460 mm
Date(s) of discovery: Tuesday 1st January 1980 - Sunday 31st December 1989
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4 Figure: ST9766
Four figure Latitude: 51.39302989
Four figure longitude: -2.04450579
1:25K map: ST9766
1:10K map: ST96NE
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
No references cited so far.