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Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
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Late Iron Age copper alloy object
Coiled, copper alloy strip with smooth but damaged lateral sides, which spirals downwards anti-clockwise through 3.75 turns. One end is square and contains a sub-circular patch of differential corrosion on its external surface while the other end is circular and contains a rectangular patch of differential corrosion on its internal surface. The coil is pierced by three fixing holes (all diameter c.2mm) two of which are located centrally at either end of the strip c.2mm from the edge. The third is set c.25mm from the circular end adjacent to an edge. A small copper alloy nail (length 13mm), with a slightly irregular hexagonal-sectioned upper stem and no head, has become detached from this third hole. The external surface is decorated by an almost continuous incised line which extends from c.1mm inside the fixing hole at the square end to the outside of the fixing hole at the round end. At one point, c.115mm from the square end of the strip, this decorative incised line is broken.
Coiled bronze strip, 1-100 CE. It may be spiral binding from wooden staffs or sceptres. Religious artefacts such as this are known at Iron Age and Roman temple sites in southern Britain.
WA_SC 11.1
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Find Information
Site Name: Llyn Cerrig Bach, Cae Ifan Farm
Notes: Found during the construction of an airfield at RAF Station Valley. Some certainly, the rest probably, from a wet meadow which formed the margin of Llyn Cerrig Bach. The exact depth below the grassy surface at which the objects were deposited is not known. The bog was excavated to a maximum depth of 20 feet. A few objects were found on the spot, after the peaty deposit had been won from the boggy margin of the lake. The rest, with the exception of 44.32/58, were found on that portion of the adjacent aerodrome on which the peat from this site had been spread. Animal bones were associated with the deposit and many metal objects were stained with vivianite.