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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.
Dyma arteffact bychan o eurddalen. Mae’r siâp yn awgrymu efallai mai clustdlws ydoedd. Yn un pen, mae iddi goes gul, grwm sy’n meinhau. Mae honno’n ymledu i greu siâp lletach sydd bron yn driongl yn y pen arall. Mae dwy linell wedi’u mewnoli yn cydredeg ag ymylon y pen llydan. Mae’r rhain yn ymddangos fel gwrymiau bach ar yr ochr draw. Mae’r ddalen yn denau iawn ac ychydig yn grwm. Mae arddull, addurnwaith a chyfansoddiad aur yr eitem yn awgrymu y gallai fod yn enghraifft o glustdlws ‘addurn basged’ ac yn un o’r arteffactau aur cynharaf y gwyddom amdanynt o Gymru, yn dyddio o 2450-2150 CC.
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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.