British repoussé boss fragment, bronze, early 2nd century BC, width: 3.1 cm. |
There are two pieces with which this fragment can be compared but they are of very different periods. The most recent is the Elmswell, east Yorkshire casket fragment of the 1st cent AD. I cannot provide a bigger photograph, and the Hull City Council does not allow its reproduction. It is not on display, but a more detailed view is on Jope, 2000, plate 222.
The second piece is the long Wandsworth shield boss in the British Museum of the early 2nd century BC:
Long Wandsworth shield boss © Trustees of the British Museum |
It seems likely to me that the fragment came from the same areas on a different shield that show the damage on the Wandsworth shield. The fragile metal would have been backed perhaps with pitch and wood for support, and the raised lines of thicker metal added extra support.
It is quite remarkable that the fragment survived at all in the ground and it is possible that the fragment came from an anaerobic environment, perhaps a "watery deposit" like the two Wandsworth shields, the Witham and the the Battersea shields. With such high status metalwork, the location of the workshops cannot usually be determined even with provenanced items in the same style.
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