File:Bronze Age gold strip (FindID 550003).jpg

English: Circumstances of discovery
A gold band or ribbon of Bronze Age date was discovered by Ms Georgina Agnew while metal detecting on the 9th of March 2013 near Sherborne St John in the county of Hampshire.

Description
1. A single fragment of an incomplete gold band or ribbon of rectangular shape with one surface decorated with 10 finely cut and very straight grooves. The other surface is plain and relatively flat and smooth, with the grooves visible in places but not fully penetrating through from the opposite side. The surviving terminal has a centrally-placed perforation, c.1.5mm from the terminal end. This end has also been bent or folded over, with the decorated side facing uppermost. The opposite end has been broken off. The undecorated surface carries some minor cracks from the distortion of the band/ribbon. The intact terminal end appears to have been slightly 'crimped'.
The perforation has been pushed through from the undecorated side. This may be a product of the perforation technique and does not necessarily mean that it was fastened in this way. A small mound of gold created around the perforation, viewed under a microscope, appears to have been slightly flattened. It is therefore possible that it was secured by a fastening pushed through in the opposite direction. It may have served as an ornament that was worn or a mount applied to another object.

Dimensions: Full length if stretched out: 31mm; Length of band in present, folded condition: 23mm; Width: 7mm; Thickness: 0.3-0.35mm
Weight: 1.1g
Metal composition
See attached report by Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, The British Museum (File No. 7506-5, 1 May 2013).

Discussion
A number of similar bands have been discovered in England in recent years, most notably the examples from The Hamel, Oxfordshire (Case 1981; Palmer 1981); Corringham, Lincolnshire (2011 T459); Sproxton, North Yorkshire (2010 T664); Flixton, North Yorkshire (2003 T40a&b); and Ansley, Warwickshire (2007 T672). The find from The Hamel, Oxfordshire, came from the same layer as typologically late Beaker pottery dating to the Early Bronze Age (cf. Needham 2005).
Grooved gold bands are also a feature of a small number of flat-riveted Early Bronze Age dagger graves from central Scotland, where they serve as pommel mounts (Henshall 1968, nos. 5-6, 8; and a recent discovery from a dagger grave at Forteviot, Perth & Kinross, G. Noble & K. Brophy pers. comm.). However, in contrast to the dagger hilt bands, the Sherborne St John ribbon/band is decorated with far finer grooves that do not penetrate through to the other side of the band to create a 'corrugated' effect (cf. Needham's 'corrugated hilt band' group: 2000, 52-4, fig. 2). Furthermore, it does not have the truncated cone form and flanges that is a feature of these dagger pommel mounts. It therefore appears to have been made using a different technique, reflecting the thickness or design of the ribbon/band. In this respect the find from The Hamel, with its 11 finely traced and very straight grooves (Case 1980, A05), and the example from Flixton, North Yorkshire, are closer parallels. The Sherborne St John find could therefore be considered in the context of Needham's (2000) incised 'Wessex Linear' group, although the form and decoration is clearly less elaborate. However, in discussing the band from Flixton, Needham has noted that the band has Late Bronze Age Irish parallels (e.g. Saintjohns, Co. Kildare; Derrinboy, Co. Offaly; Co. Tipperary: Eogan 1983, no. 11, B, 4-5; nos. 14, 3-4; no. 15, D, 1-2). The Sherborne St John band therefore belongs to a group of Bronze Age fine multi-grooved bands/ribbons that are known from Early and Late Bronze Age contexts with possible Irish parallels.

References
Case, H. 1980, 'Pottery, Flint and Metalwork' In Palmer, N. 1981, 'A Beaker Burial and Medieval Tenements in the Hamel, Oxford', Oxoniensia, XLV (1980), [Mircofiche], 1 A04

Eogan, G. 1983, The Hoards of the Irish Later Bronze Age, Dublin: University College

Needham, S.P. 2000, 'The Development of Embossed Goldwork in Bronze Age Europe', The Antiquaries Journal, 80 (2000), 27-65

Needham, S.P. 2005, 'Transforming Beaker Culture in north-west Europe: processes of fusion and fission', Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 71, 171-217

Palmer, N. 1981, 'A Beaker Burial and Medieval Tenements in the Hamel, Oxford', Oxoniensia, XLV (1980), 124-225

Author
Neil Wilkin
Curator, Bronze Age Collection
The British Museum