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Description: | A copper alloy fragment of a finger ring with a bezel in the form of a human head and shoulders. About half of the ring survives, and the piece is 18.6mm long, 8.4mm wide and 4.2mm thick. The hoop is rectangular in section and then expands and thickens into the bezel which is a human face in relief. What is unusual is that the head is not a ninety degrees to the hoop, but runs around the finger with the hoop running into the top of the head-dress and out the bottom of the shoulders. It is not clear who the head is supposed to depict, or whether it is male or female. The shoulders and neck are narrow and the face is oval and crudely depicted. The mouth is a straight incised line, the nose is very broad and the eyes are incised triangles. There is a depressed line running across the top of the head above which is a hat or head-dress. This has a curved top and two depressions running diagonally in from the top toward the centre making it trilobed. This could be interpreted as a crown, a mitre, unruly hair or a feather head-dress. In some areas, the surface of the ring is shiny, and may have been tinned. The metal has a deep green patina and the breaks are not fresh. No close parallel has been found but finger rings depicting human heads are illustrated in ??Dress Accessories?? by Egan and Pritchard, 1991, though none are orientated like this example. It is thus difficult to date the ring, but perhaps a medieval or early post-medieval date is most likely. | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Cooper, Amy - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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