Object: Dress Fastener (unknown) (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1000 to -700)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Dymock, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire (South West)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 47.8 mm
Weight: 99.1 g
Description: Copper alloy ring of uncertain date, possibly a Late Bronze Age dress-fastener The ring is near-complete, with minimal peripheral damage to one of the terminals (with an overall height of 47.8mm and a weight of 99.1g). The terminals are joined but there is a fracture between the two sides (giving the object an overall width of 76.9mm). The terminals are circular but are irregular (with a diameter of 40mm) and are angled upwards towards the midpoint. The underside of the terminals have a crescent-shaped bevel on the outer edges, elsewhere the underside is concave and appears unfinished from casting. At the centre of each terminal are raised stubs around a rectangular depression (5.3mm long by 1.3mm wide), presumably the remnants of where the jet was removed, although it remains uncertain why the casting left rectangular depressions. The upper faces of the terminals have a raised edge defined by an internal groove. The finished edge does not continue onto the inner side of the terminals. The faces are convex, growing deeper towards the hoop (with a thickness of 6mm). There is a semicircular moulding around the hoop on both terminals (19mm long, 15mm wide and 1mm deep). The hoop (with a maximum external width of 60.2mm and internal: 44.1mm wide by 29.7mm high) is of oval section and is widest and deeper near the terminals (at 14mm wide and 9mm deep) and narrows to the midpoint of the hoop (7mm wide and 7mm deep). There are no discernible wear facets around the hoop. The inner face of the hoop has a casting flaw near one terminal, resulting from an air bubble. The surface of the copper alloy is pitted with a mid-brown patina and a silvery sheen, probably because of tin leaching, leading to surface enrichment.
Notes: Analysis to ascertain the metallurgical composition of the bronze was attempted using a CamScan MaXim 2040 analytical scanning electron microscope (SEM), plus an Oxford Instruments Link Isis energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX). Readings were taken from the surface and initial results appear to have been effected by the tin leaching referred to above, resulting in very high tin readings. Unusually, there was no lead detected in the readings. The ring appears to be unfinished on the terminals and any identification is somewhat speculative. The form of the artefact closely resembles 'dress-fasteners', particularly if the terminals were finished and separated to form a penannular ring. Dress-fasteners are of Late Bronze Age date, generally associated with the Ewart Park and Llyn Fawr metalworking industry, corresponding to Needham's (1996) Periods 7 and 8, dated to c. 950-750BC and 750-450BC respectively. Dress-fasteners are of uncertain function, and are generally made of gold and recovered from Ireland and Scotland, with outliers from Yorkshire and Norfolk (Eogan 1994, p 98, fig 40) . Bronze examples are occasionally recovered, such as in the Mountrivers Hoard, County Cork, Ireland (Eogan, 1994, Plate XVI) and the Poolewe Hoard, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland (Schmidt & Burgess, plate 152) . If this bronze example can be identified as a Late Bronze Age dress-fastener, it would represent the first recorded example from Wales.