Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/390

 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Yorkshire also provides a parallel for the bronze nave-hoops included in the Santon Dow^nham hoard. These were six in number, two of them being narrower but slightly larger in diameter and fitting on to the broader ones, which had an outside diameter of about sl^in., and were 2| in. deep, of fairly thick metal. Those found in a chariot-burial at Arras (British Museum) were over 5 in. in diameter and I J in. wide, with a raised rib round the middle, but the metal was too thin to give additional strength to the nave of the chariot wheel. The bronze band with incised lines found folded up and in pieces in the bronze vessel may have originally served the same purpose. Other fragments definitely of late Celtic work are a thin bronze band 8| in. by if in. em- bossed with a repeating pattern, rivet-holes separating the units of the design. Very similar bands are preserved in the national collection from Rodborough Common, near Stroud, Gloucester. There is also a bronze plate, forming the segment of a circle, with the curved edge moulded and the base measuring 6| in. In the middle is a large patch or cover over an oblong opening, attached by two rivets with movable heads in the form of ducks, and engraved with a circular geometrical design on a hatched ground. Similar rosettes are engraved on the plate itself in the angles. The movable water-fowl may have had some religious significance. There are several bronze ferrules, the use of which is uncertain, but one is in position at the end of a cylindrical bone 5^ in. in length, slightly tapering towards the ferrule. Also a thin bronze disk l^in. in diameter (perhaps the face of a brooch), embossed with a grotesque animal much resembling one from Westhall, Suffolk.' A steelyard on the Roman principle io|in. long, with well-made scale-pan 4 in. in diameter, may be mentioned here as having an open-work weight with a triskele at the bottom, this being a favourite motive in the pre-Roman period.^ Late Celtic buckets of wood are not infrequently found, and the hoard included lengths of thin bronze heavily tinned that probably belonged to a vessel or vessels of that kind. One edge is cut straight to fit the top or bottom of the outside, while the other is deeply scalloped,** the distance from point to point across each opening being about 3 j in. An arched handle, playing on two rivets with broad round heads, is bent in two planes, the middle section being flat for convenience in carrying ; and the diameter, as calculated from the span of the handle and two flat bands that may also have belonged to it, is about 7 in. This agrees fairly well with the smaller of two from Aylesford, Kent, which was covered outside with thin bronze plate.' Another group is unmistakably Roman, either as being imports from some richer part of the Empire or copies of Roman models more or less common on the Continent. The most striking specimen is a finely-made bronze jug [oenochoe) with trefoil lip and ornate handle with a lion's head at the point of junction with the lip. The lower end of the handle where it joins the body is in the form of a claw, and the whole is of elegant design, but the base was damaged and clumsily patched before being included in the hoard. The height of the jug itself is fjin., the handle rising 2 in. higher, and an approximate date is afforded by similar finds at Pompeii, which must date before the destruction of that town in a.d. 79. There are also several hinges and drop-handles of various sizes and patterns, the former being perhaps for use on armour, the latter for attachment to caskets or similar receptacles. Their staples are still attached, and in one case show that the wood or other material through which they passed was only |-in. thick. Another bronze of artistic interest is the fluted handle, 45 in. long, of a bowl or skillet that may have been used ceremonially with the jug already described. Only a fragment of the bowl remains on the handle, and the other end represents the head of a dog or other animal. Further evidence of date is afforded by nine brooches of various recognized forms, and all of the 1st or early and century. Three ranging between l^ and 2 in. consist of a rather massive bow with solid catch-plate for the pin, and across the head a curved cover for the spring, which is missing, but was originally caught in a hook or loop at the top of the bow. A fourth fragment, consisting of the head and half the bow, retains part of the spirally-wound wire that gave tension to the pin. Of the rest, two measuring 2f in. are furnished with cylindrical covers for the spring and have a short broad bow connecting the head with a circular and lozenge plate respectively, which form the ornamental part of the brooch. The foot' in both cases is grooved and slightly spreading, while the catch-plate at the back is pierced, with a step-pattern bar across the opening. Another brooch of kindred form has a pointed boss on the disk, and another somewhat smaller specimen may once have had a boss of the same kind. The first four described agree in the main with those included in the Polden Hill hoard,* while the rest are assigned on independent grounds to the first half of the ist century.* ' Iron Age Guide (Brit. Mus.), 1 29, fig. no. ' Ibid. 102, with figs. °* Compare Anderson, Scotland in Pagan Times : Iron Age, 129. ' Op. cit. 1 19, fig. 97. ' For the spring-cover, tension-hook, and catch-plate perforated with step-pattern, see the Polden Hill brooch figured in Iron Age Guide (Brit. Mus.), 128, fig. 109. ' Koencn, Bonner J airbiicker, Ixxxvi, pi. iv, figs. 11, 18, p. 220 (Andernach).