ROMAN MINIATURE OBJECT

-200

Copper alloy circular item of Late Iron Age to Roman date. The piece is is a ring with integrally cast decoration across the centre. The decoration is of the same thickness as the ring and consists of three circles, slightly unevenly spaced round the inner side of the ring, and linked across the centre by a concave sided triangle. On the back the circles and triangle are flat and continuous with the ring surface. On the front the joint between the ring and two of the circles is emphasised by incised lines. The three circles are each drilled in the centre with a deep circular hole, two of which are filled with a circular disk of a cream substance, probably coral. The ring is D-shaped in section with rounded outer sides and a flat inner side. Two parts of the inner side between the circles are almost vertical while a third is angled out towards the front. The central hole is slight off centre so one part of the side is wider than the rest. The ring varies in thickness being slightly thicker at the areas where it adjoins the circles. There is a small dent in the front of the ring by the inner edge, this appears to be damage. There is also some possible wear on the back of the ring at the same point on the inner edge as the dent. The ring is 20.1mm in external diameter and varies from 4.2mm thick to 3.9mm thick and 3.9mm wide to 2.7mm wide. It weighs 5.06 grams.There are no signs of breaks on the item apart from the small dent mentioned above suggesting it is complete. It may be a small strap junction but does not have much wear on the inner edges of the ring where this might be expected if it was used in that way. A few small wheels, possibly amulets, have been found on Later Iron Age sites including Meare and Hounslow (Jope 2000: Plate 161 O and Plate 199i). All have an '+' internal frame, as do other miniature wheels recorded on the PAS Database, DENO-0BBA52 from Thimbleby, Lincolnshire and HESH-C53CF4 from Shrewsbury. WAW-360062 from Worcestershire and IOW-19E771 from the Isle of Wight on this database have similar three armed internal frames and a three armed example is also known from Meare (Coles 1987:71 no.E84).