Object: Hoard (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1400 to -1300)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Rockbourne, New Forest, Hampshire (South East)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Description: 2019 T608; undergoing valuation



Description: A group of three Bronze Age copper alloy arm bracelets/armrings. 




	
A copper alloy bracelet/armring, consisting of a copper alloy bar bent around into a loop with slightly overlapping terminals. Undecorated and lozengiform in cross section, tapering at either end into unelaborated terminals.

	

	Diameter 80.8mm; width 7.2mm; thickness 5.6mm; weight 46.06g.

	 

	
A fragment of a copper alloy bracelet/armring, representing one terminal and part of the loop. The fragment consists of a bar of copper alloy, curved in profile, truncated by a fresh break at one end. Undecorated and plano-convex in cross section, with a prominent casting seam on the interior face and on the terminal. The terminal is unelaborated and sub-rectangular.





Length 60.8mm; width 10.1mm; thickness 6.6mm; weight 28.32g.




	
A copper alloy bracelet/armring, consisting of a copper alloy bar bent around into a loop, now sub-oval in plan and bent out of shape. Undecorated with a lozengiform cross section, with slightly expanded pad-like terminals. 





Width across loop 93.9mm; width 7.8mm; thickness 6.8mm; weight 44.31g. 



Discussion: 



The bracelets/armrings described above can be best paralleled by objects from Ornament Horizon hoards of the Taunton phase (c.1400-1300 BC). During this phase many bracelets are more elaborate in the form or decoration (e.g. Rowlands 1971), and the Rockbourne examples are plain. They are, nevertheless, well paralleled by finds from the Monkswood hoard, Somerset (Smith 1959, Inv Arch GB. 42 2(1) & 2(2), see nos. 3-7), the Brading Marsh hoard (Isle of Wight), Hampshire (Rowlands 1976, 238), and Ebbesbourne Wake hoard, Wiltshire (Rowlands 1976, 271-21). For wider discussion of the ornament horizon and deposition of bracelets/armrings see Roberts (2007) and Wilkin (2017). 



Only fragments 1 & 2 have precise find spots, with these being very widely dispersed within the same field. Despite this, it is unlikely that three bronze age armlets of similar form would be separately deposited within such a small area, and on the balance of probability the group either represent a hoard disturbed by later cultivation, or were deposited as part of the same process. 



Conclusion:



As a find of three copper alloy objects of prehistoric  date, objects Nos. 1-3 qualify as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996 (Designation Order 2002)



Wil Partridge

Finds Liaison Officer for Wiltshire

July 2019



Checked and edited:

Neil Wilkin, Curator, British Museum

August 2019
Notes: References:

Roberts, B. 2007. Adorning the living but not the dead: a reassessment of Middle Bronze Age ornaments in Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 73, 135-67



Rowlands, M.J. 1971. ‘A Group of Incised Decoration Armrings and their Significance for the Middle Bronze Age of Southern Britain’, The British Museum Quarterly, XXXV (Nos. 1-4), 183-99



Rowlands, M. J, 1976. The Production and Distribution of Metalwork in the Middle Bronze Age in Southern Britain, BAR 3 I (i&ii)



Wilkin, N. 2017. ‘Combination, Composition and Context: Readdressing British Middle Bronze Age Ornament Hoards (c.1400-1100 cal. BC)’ In Martin, T.F & Weetch, R. (eds.), Dress and Society: Contributions from Archaeology, Oxford: Oxbow Books, 14-47
Subsequent action: Donated to museum after being declared Treasure