Gold Bracteate

Description

Gold A-bracteate. A disc of beaten gold bearing a low-relief design within a stamped border, and retaining a finely billeted rim. The central design is obviously derived from the profile diademed imperial bust appearing on late Roman coinage, though with significant adaptations which are deliberately chosen, rather than simple misconstructions of the design. Below the neck, a Roman coin would display the upper part of a cuirass. Here, the cuirass has become a wolf galloping leftwards. The bracteate, now lacking means of suspension, may have been mutilated in antiquity.

Object number

NOLMS:2024.073

Object

Bracteate
Pendant

Production date

AD 410 - 600
Early Anglo-Saxon

Material

Gold (Metal)

Dimensions

Diameter: 29.6mm
Depth: 0.5mm
Weight: 2.01g

Associated people

Heseltine, Terry (Mr)

Provenance

Worlaby (North Lincolnshire)
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