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A Romano-British Gold Workshop of the Second Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

H.E.M. Cool
H.E.M. Cool
Affiliation:
Department of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Leeds.
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Extract

This article seeks to show that a workshop producing gold jewellery was active in Britain in the second century A.D‥ It is felt that demonstrating the likely existence of such a workshop may be of value to students of the period when they consider the likely places of manufacture of other non-utilitarian articles in use in Roman Britain. There is often a tendency to assume that such goods were imported from elsewhere in the Empire without considering the evidence either for or against this. Here, evidence that luxurious gold jewellery was being manufactured in Britain will be presented, and it must lead us to consider to what extent other luxury goods were being manufactured by local craftsmen. The evidence for this workshop is provided by a small group of personal ornaments which share uncommon and idiosyncratic details of workmanship and which are often of unusual forms. It should not be forgotten, however, that there is more tangible evidence for gold-working in Britain during the Roman period in the form of crucibles with traces of gold from, for example, London at the end of the first century, Verulamium in the middle of the second, Chester in the fourth and Cirencester at an unspecified date within the Roman period.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 17 , November 1986 , pp. 231 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © H.E.M. Cool 1986. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 London: TLMAS xx (1969), 12; Verulamium: Frere, S.S., Verulamium Excavations 1 (London, 1972) 11ff.Google Scholar; Chester: Britannia xi (1980), 365; Cirencester. Wacher, J., The Towns of Roman Britain (London, 1974), 310.Google Scholar

2 Marshall, F.H., Catalogue of the Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan and Roman in the Departments of Antiquities British Museum (London, 1911), nos. 2797–9.Google Scholar

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4 Brailsford, J.W., Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain, 2nd ed (London 1958), fig. 14. 3.Google Scholar

5 Ant. Journ. lviii (1977), 323; Ant. Journ. lix (1979), 401.

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7 Arch. Camb. 5 xvi (1899), 259–67.

8 Archaeologia xiv (1803), 39.

9 For a detailed description of the ornaments from Rhayader, Southfleet and Ashtead see Cool, H.E.M., A study of the Roman personal ornaments made of metal, excluding brooches, from southern Britain (PhD thesis Univ. of Wales 1983)Google Scholar, Bracelet no. XXXVIII 1 and Miscellaneous ornaments nos. 2, 3 & 4.

10 Pfeiler, B., Römische Goldschmucke (Mainz, 1970), 52.Google Scholar

11 ibid., 31.

12 ibid., 87.

13 Marshall op. cit. (note 2), nos. 2741, 2742, 2787 & 2788.

14 ibid., nos. 2738 & 2739; Marshall, op. cit. (note 6), nos. 451, 460, 461, 633 & 943.

15 For a recent discussion see Ant. Journ. lviii (1977), 323.

16 Brailsford, op. cit. (note 4), fig. 14, 4.

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18 Johns, C. and Potter, T., The Thetford Treasure (London, 1983), nos. 28 & 29.Google Scholar

19 Pfeiler, op. cit. (note 10), 52.

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21 Iraq xi (1949), pl. lvii, 2 & lx, I & 2.

22 Marshall, op. cit. (note 2), no. 2866.

23 Comarmond, A., Description de l'écrin d'une dame Romaine trouve à Lyon en 1841 (Lyons, 1844), pl. 4, 23Google Scholar (The illustrations from this work are reproduced in King, I. and Henig, M., The Roman West in the third century B.A.R. Int. Ser. 109 (Oxford, 1981), figs. 8, 1–8–4).Google Scholar

24 Marshall, op. cit. (note 2), 327.

25 ibid. 2875.

26 Information from Mr C. Green.

27 Brailsford, op. cit. (note 4), fig. 9, 17.

28 Comarmand, op. cit. (note 23), pl. 1, 17 & 18; 2, 19 & 20; 3, 21 & 23.

29 Cool, op. cit. (note 9), 336ff.

30 See for example Pfeiler op. cit. (note 10), Tafn. 1, 2, 3, 3 & 4.

31 Comarmond, op. cit. (note 23), pl. 1–4.

32 Pfeiler, op. cit. (note 10), 100.

33 King, I. and Henig, M.. (eds.), The Roman West in the third century B. A.R. Int. Ser. 109 (Oxford, 1981), 138.Google Scholar