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Description: | A complete copper alloy Roman seal box with an enamelled lid, dating from about 100 - 300 AD.The seal box is rectangular in plan and section. There is a protruding hinge mechanism at one end. The lid has a single lug as poart of the hinge. The three lower sides of the lid are longer than the top edge; they extend to the base of the box. The long side a centrally notched to alloy a cord to pass through the chamber. The face is decorated with an enamelled "celtic" design: there is a copper alloy border, then a red background, and cells bordered by copper alloy. There is an abstract S shape in white or blue enamel with a separate angled, pointed leaf shaped "ear" at each end form an X shape. There is a circular cell filled with opaque orange enamel in the curve of the S at each end, where the S and the "ears" join. The lower part of the box has a double lug forming the hinge, and there is a surviving copper alloy axis bar. There are four irregular circular holes in the base of the box. The box is 25.1mm long, 14.9mm wide and 9.8mm thick. 10.57g.The decoration can be paralleled on SWYOR-807F44, a mount; on RAH1275, a seal box same of the same design, and on BUC-984555 which has two motifs of the same design. The latter record notes that: "Crummy designates this type of enameled and squared seal box lid as Type 3 and believes that enameled seal boxes belong to the 2nd-3rd century AD. Seal boxes "served to protect the...lump of wax which held together the bindings of a packet or writing tablet" (Crummy 1995, 103).".
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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