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Early Bronze Age gold earring
This is a small artefact of sheet gold, whose shape suggests that it may have been an ear-ring. It has a narrow, tapering, rounded tang at one end that expands to a broader sub-triangular shape at the other end. There are two indented lines that run parallel to the circumference of the expanded end. These are present are slight ridges on the reverse. The overall sheet is very thin and slightly bowed. The style, decoration and gold composition of this object suggests it may be an example of a 'basket ornament' earring and one of the earliest known gold artefacts from Wales, dating to 2450-2150 BCE.
Project Title: Gold in Britain’s auriferous regions, 2450-800 BC: towards a coherent Research Framework and Strategy. Status: Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Network Grant funded project (2018-2019)
LI1.4
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Find Information
Site Name: Usk, Monmouthshire
Notes: Settlement assemblage. This object was found in a pre-Flavian fortress pit (LBC) in the second layer (2), which was filled with brown earth, sand, lumps of pink clay, charcoal and daub and bands of charcoal. This layer also contained a fragment of a glass jug, a coin of Claudius I, and a variety of fine and coarseware. This find has previously been considered Roman, but the form, coupled with metallurgical surface analysis, is indicative this is more likely to date to the Bronze Age rather than the Roman period.