ROMAN FINGER RING

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Gold finger ring with an expanded oval flat bezel engraved with a bird with long tail feathers. The bird is essentially made up of three engraved sections: the head, body and tail, with two linear bent legs beneath the body. The hoop is oval in profile and D-shaped in section, tapering to a more circular section at the opposite side to the bezel. The hoop is plain on the exterior and interior with no deliberate marks, but there are several nicks along both edges and a dent on the inside of the hoop, opposite the bezel. The ring is generally worn, especially the bezel, but the engraving is still clear.Birds are often depicted holding an olive branch as a sign of peace on Roman gold finger rings, as seen in record NMS-AF4E73. A Roman gold child's finger ring incised with an olive branch was found in Lanivet parish in Cornwall (2006 T463) can be seen in CORN-437A92. Another slender Roman gold finger ring with similar engraving, but in the form of a figure of Genius, can be seen in record KENT-792C65.The long tail suggests that the bird may represent a peacock, which were quite commonly depicted on intaglios (eg. no. 747 in Guiraud, Gallia suppl. 48). The peacock was sacred to Juno and later was adopted by Christians as a symbol of everlasting life (Richard Hobbs pers comm).This style of Roman gold finger ring is typical of the 1st century AD (Dr Ralph Jackson pers comm).