File:Fragment of a Roman finger-ring (FindID 1011364).jpg

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Summary

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Fragment of a Roman finger-ring
Photographer
Norfolk County Council, Andrew Williams, 2020-10-12 10:52:28
Title
Fragment of a Roman finger-ring
Description
English: Description: Fragment of Roman gilded silver finger-ring. About a quarter of the hoop survives, together with part of the bezel. The hoop  measures a minimum of just 1.4mm in width and 1.1mm in thickness at the worn break, where it is oval in cross-section. It flares to to a shoulder in the form of an animal head; this is sub-rectangular, with a pair of back-to-back C-shaped grooves nearest to the bezel which probably represent the eyes, and a pair of dots further from the bezel that probably represent nostrils. Each end of the head is decoratively shaped, probably to represent the ears at one end and the curves of the nose or snout at the other.

Beyond the animal head, the ring narrows again for a short length, and is D-shaped in cross-section. It then expands to a sub-rectangular panel, decorated with five short grooves in the same plane as the hoop, which is overlain by a curving ridge which appears to be the edge of a rounded setting for a gem. The interior is smoothly curved. The interior and sides retain gilding, which has presumably worn off the exterior.

Dimensions: Surviving length 15.7mm, maximum width 4.5mm. Weight 0.4g.

Discussion: It is not easy to find a good parallel for this ring. Expanded shoulders that then narrow again before the junction with the bezel are found on several types of Roman finger-rings; compare SF-92F963, which also has animal heads at the shoulders. It probably should be classified as a Guiraud type 4, which has a narrow hoop and embellished shoulders before a well-defined bezel; the closest sub-type might perhaps be a Guiraud type 4d (1989, 190). Examples of this type on the PAS database include NCL-D99A78, NCL-7822C4 and SOM-E7E65C.

Date: Guiraud type 4 finger-rings appear to date from at least the mid second century through to the fourth century (Guirard 1989, 191; Johns 1996, 47).

Depicted place (County of findspot) Norfolk
Date between 150 and 400
Accession number
FindIdentifier: 1011364
Credit line
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme started in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales. Finds are published at https://finds.org.uk
Source https://finds.org.uk/database/ajax/download/id/1118723
Catalog: https://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/1118723/recordtype/artefacts archive copy at the Wayback Machine
Artefact: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/1011364
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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Attribution: Norfolk County Council
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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current16:13, 16 May 2021Thumbnail for version as of 16:13, 16 May 20213,916 × 4,476 (2.44 MB) (talk | contribs)Portable Antiquities Scheme, NMS (slurp), FindID: 1011364-1118723, roman, page 16, batch count 278

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