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Description: | Part of a copper-alloy finger-ring of Early Medieval date, from the 8th or 9th century. The ring has a circular bezel which is nearly flat. It is decorated with four pairs of curved incised grooves, one by each shoulder and one to top and bottom. These form a central lozenge, in which is an incised cross, with an annulet in each angle. The whole is in a incised circular border. The hoop is narrow and the outer face is bevelled. Only a short part of it survives, projecting from one shoulder. The shoulders are each decorated with three pellets forming a sub-triangular knop projecting from the angle between the hoop and the edge of the bezel. The ring has a brown-green patina. There may have once been enamel or niello in the grooves, but no evidence of this survives. There is a chip from one edge of the bezel and most of the hoop is missing.Good parallels to this finger-ring can be found among Merovingian rings, e.g. from St-Martin-de-Fontenay, Thonnance-Lés-Joinville, Creuë, Chtel-Saint-Germain, Longueil-Annel, Cléry-sur-Somme, Franchimont (Hadjadj 2007, nos. 67, 187, 199, 217, 275, 313, 392). The Creuë example, dated to c. 500-700 AD, is perhaps the closest, with curving grooves, a central cross and pellets at the junction of hoop and bezel.The ring can also be compared to the 8th- or 9th-century River Nene finger-ring (Wilson 1964, no. 57) in the British Museum (acc. no. 1855,1115.1).This unusually has two bezels, one opposite the other; both are circular and flat with incised decoration, and each shoulder is embellished with three globules.The date-range for this ring is therefore likely to run from the sixth to the ninth century.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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