Rings from the snettisham jewellers hoard

The Snettisham Jeweller's Hoard is a collection of

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a ...

jewellery and raw materials, found during the construction of a house in the

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

village of

Snettisham Snettisham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located near the west coast of Norfolk, some south of the seaside resort of Hunstanton, north of the town of King's Lynn and northwest of the city of Norwic ...

in 1985. The hoard is thought to be the working stock of a

jeweller A bench jeweler is an artisan who uses a combination of skills to make and repair jewelry. Some of the more common skills that a bench jeweler might employ include antique restoration, silversmith, Goldsmith, stone setting, engraving, fabrica ...

, buried in a single clay pot around 155 AD. The finds include the working tip of a quartz burnishing tool (its handle has not survived), partially or fully completed items of jewellery, and raw materials: mainly silver coins, scrap silver items and silver ingots, but also six pieces of scrap gold, and many engraved gemstones to be set in rings. The presence of scrap gold and silver and absence of

base metal A base metal is a common and inexpensive metal, as opposed to a precious metal such as gold or silver. In numismatics, coins often derived their value from the precious metal content; however, base metals have also been used in coins in the past ...

s indicates that the jeweller dealt mainly with high-status customers. The high pot in which the hoard was found is local grey-ware, spherical with relatively narrow opening and base, with a capacity of around . Some items – such as bracelets – had to be bent to fit through the opening. Within the pot were found: * 110 coins: 83 silver

denarii The denarius (, dēnāriī ) was the standard Roman silver coin from its introduction in the Second Punic War to the reign of Gordian III (AD 238–244), when it was gradually replaced by the antoninianus. It continued to be minted in very sm ...

and 27 bronze coins; 74 of the silver coins are from the third issue by

Domitian Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...

(81–96 AD), one with a relatively high silver content. There are also some posthumous coins of the deified Empress

Faustina I Annia Galeria Faustina the Elder, sometimes referred to as Faustina I or Faustina Major (born on February 16 around 100; died in October or November of 140), was a Roman empress and wife of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius. The emperor Marcus Au ...

(dated to 154–155 AD) which give a

terminus post quem ''Terminus post quem'' ("limit after which", sometimes abbreviated to TPQ) and ''terminus ante quem'' ("limit before which", abbreviated to TAQ) specify the known limits of dating for events or items.. A ''terminus post quem'' is the earliest da ...

for the burial of the hoard. The silver coins are probably raw materials; the bronze coins may be the jeweller's own petty cash. * 117 engraved

carnelian Carnelian (also spelled cornelian) is a brownish-red mineral commonly used as a semi-precious gemstone. Similar to carnelian is sard, which is generally harder and darker (the difference is not rigidly defined, and the two names are often use ...

gemstones, of which only 7 stones are mounted in finger rings. Most have simple wheel-cut intaglio engravings with symbols of good luck, including deities such as

Fortuna Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at ...

Bonus Eventus Bonus Eventus ("Good Outcome") was a divine personification in ancient Roman religion. The Late Republican scholar Varro lists him as one of the twelve deities who presided over agriculture, paired with Lympha, the goddess who influenced the water ...

, and

Ceres Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid * Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres may also refer to: Places Brazil * Ceres, Goiás, Brazil * Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...

. Stylistic differences indicate that the gemstones were produced by at least three different engravers. * A variety of completed rings, illustrating the range of variation available to a provincial jeweller, some set with gems, but many snake-rings, with a snake's head stamped in low relief at either end of a silver ribbon which would then be bent into shape. * Snake-bracelets, like the snake-rings, produced by stamping with a hammer and dies. * Silver chain necklaces with crescent pendants and wheel clasps, possibly representing the moon and the sun. * Quartz burnishing tool; its handle has not survived, but traces of gold on the tool show that it was used to polish gold. * Two rare scraps of Roman

linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...

, one attached to a coin and another to a ring. The silver finds were covered in a layer of

silver chloride Silver chloride is a chemical compound with the chemical formula Ag Cl. This white crystalline solid is well known for its low solubility in water (this behavior being reminiscent of the chlorides of Tl+ and Pb2+). Upon illumination or heating, ...

corrosion, and some items including copper were covered with green

copper carbonate Copper carbonate may refer to : ;Copper (II) compounds and minerals * Copper(II) carbonate proper, (neutral copper carbonate): a rarely seen moisture-sensitive compound. * Basic copper carbonate (the "copper carbonate" of commerce), actually a cop ...

verdigris Verdigris is the common name for blue-green, copper-based pigments that form a patina on copper, bronze, and brass. The technical literature is ambiguous as to its chemical composition. Some sources refer to "neutral verdigris" as copper(II) ac ...

. The finds are held by the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

References

* * *
The Jewellery Of Roman Britain: Celtic and Classical Traditions
Catherine Johns, Routledge 1996, , p. 43–48, 80, 109–111, 204
Romano-British Coin Hoards
Volume 82 of Shire Archaeology, Richard Anthony Abdy, Osprey Publishing 2002, , p. 28–29
Roman Dress Accessories
Volume 85 of Shire Archaeology, Ellen Swift, Osprey Publishing, 2003, , p. 12
Roman Britain
Volume 4 of Exploring the Roman World, Timothy W. Potter, Catherine Johns, University of California Press, 1992, {{ISBN, 0520081684, p. 144, 146–8, 167, 177 Objects of historical interest in Norfolk Archaeology of Norfolk Archaeological sites in Norfolk Prehistoric sites in England Treasure troves of Roman Britain Treasure troves in England Romano-British objects in the British Museum 1985 archaeological discoveries Hoards from Roman Britain

See also

Further reading

References