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Description: | Complete copper alloy handle from a vessel or a box. The handle is now broken into three pieces which all fit together. The patination of the breaks is the same as the patina seen on the body of the handle, being a mottled light green colour with patches of brown. The handle is in the form of a sea-serpent, and is elongated and semi-cylindrical in cross section. The head is slightly lowered and the body slightly arched, giving the beast the appearence that it is diving or swimming. The snout is triangular in cross-section and fairly wide, gentley curving upwards and widening into the face of the beast. Beneath the snout there is an integral lug circa 18mm in length and 5mm thick. The lug is rectangular in cross-section and in plan, with a drilled hole at the end 2mm in diameter.
The central ridge of the snout continues up the centre of the face and forms a narrow but long crest on the top of the head. This crest is very worn and damaged in places at the top edge, and no decorative features can be seen on it. The face of the serpent is decorated with two lozenge shaped moulded eyes set within two pairs of fairly wide moulded crescentric shaped lids. Immediately behind the eyes is a moulded elongated triangle with the apex touching the rear of the eye, probably representative of the serpents ears. The entire object apart from the tip of the snout is decorated with well executed overlapping rows of incised crescents representing the scales of the serpent. The back of the serpent tapers gradually to the beginning of the tail at which point a small fin is seen in the centre pointing upwards. Beneath this fin there is another integral lug, identical to the one beneath the snout. The tail is circa 35mm in length, thin and semi-circular in cross-section, pointing upwards at an approximate angle of 45 degrees.
Similar objects described as 'dolphins' have been found on a number of sites in the Roman world, and usually comprise two facing dolphins attached to each other by a moulded bar held mouth to mouth. Attached to the tails are normally seperate plates which in turn attach the handle to a box or vessel. Sites producing such handles include Caerleon (Evans, 2000, p354, figs 36 & 37), Trier and the surrounding regions (Menzel, 1966, 123-30). Others have split pins for attaching the handle to the box (ibid, nos 302, 305, 308, 309, 310, 311, 315, 317), which are somewhat more in line with this object. | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | 43
410 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Adam Daubney | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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