Bronze Age Gold from Wales
Late Iron Age / Roman copper alloy shield boss
Two contiguous fragments, now joined together, from the ornamental casing of a spindle-shaped shield boss. Of domed shape with out-turned lateral strips with at least two surviving rivet-holes on one of the strips. The opposing lateral strip originally retained a rivet but this is now lost. The edge of the longitudinal openings are broken off, although the boundary between the boss and the midrib is defined by an embossed moulding. It is uncertain whether this boss casing and the midrib casings under 63.419/3 & 4 formed the one piece or were separate. The domed surface of the boss is decorated with an embossed triskele design with peaked volutes at the angles, set in a roundel defined by a circular moulding; the grooves outlining the embossed portions are followed by rolled-graver lines, and triangles hatched with a rolled graver flank the roundel and the moulding on the upper and lower edges of the boss. At the centre of the roundel is a rivet-hole with surrounding circular patch for a lost ornamental stud
Bronze shield boss, 50-80 CE, decorated in the Celtic art style.
SC5.6
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Site Name: Tal-y-llyn, Gwynedd
Notes: found half-buried in a cavity under a large boulder between a footpath and the west side of the ravine of the Nant Cader at 800 feet above O.D. on the slopes of Cadair Idris near Tal-y-llyn.
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