Object: Bracelet (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-950 to -750)
Material: Gold 
Found: Cowbridge with Llanblethian, the Vale of Glamorgan, the Vale of Glamorgan (Wales)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 38.95 mm
Thickness: 3 mm
Weight: 10.9 g
Description: A terminal fragment of a Late Bronze Age gold bracelet. It has a surviving length of 38.95mm, probably representing approximately one third of the original length. The 'buffer' terminal is flat and circular with a diameter of 9.66mm to 10.30mm and has a length of 5mm. The bracelet fragment has a minimum width beneath the flaring terminal of 5.79mm. The terminal displays numerous facets, presumably resulting from forging the circular-sectioned terminal. The sides of the bracelet are straight and diverge to the break where the bracelet is comparatively wide for the type at 12.56mm. The bracelet sides are 'worked-up' to form low flanges or lips on both faces with a thickness of 1.51mm (at the break) to 3mm (near the terminal) and are slightly faceted across their thickness. These flanges remain sharp and prominent on the exterior face, but appear lower on the interior of the bracelet, possibly as a result of wear. The 'ribbon' faces have been hammered flat and are plain, with a thickness of 1.1mm at the break and thickening towards the terminal. The break appears to be deliberate and may have been cut and torn to separate; cracks resulting from metal stress are evident near the break. Two incised and roughly parallel lines on the terminal may be contemporary with the use or production of the bracelet. The bracelet fragment has a weight of 10.90g.



Non-destructive semi-quantitative SEM-EDX analysis was carried out by Mary Davis. Five areas on the bracelet were tested; the results varied considerably, depending on the level of wear, damage or scraping beneath the tested area. The gold composition varied between 78% - 97%, silver 2% - 14% and copper 1% - 8%. The scraped and damaged areas show a general composition consistent with similar material from Wales (Taylor (1980); Aldhouse-Green & Northover (1996)) and from Late Bronze Age bracelets from England analysed by Hook & Needham (1989). The depletion of silver and copper on the smooth and worn areas demonstrates a similar effect to other recently analysed prehistoric jewellery thought to have been in contact with the skin, which differs drastically to the analysis of protected and recessed areas on the same artefact.
Notes: This form of bracelet has been recognised by Taylor (1984) as a type, which she has termed the 'Potterne Type', after a similar bracelet found at Potterne, Wiltshire. The form corresponds to Hook and Needham's (1989) Class B1 bracelet (which may or may not have the flanges). Hook and Needham list 21 examples of Class B1 and related bracelets from Britain and Europe, with a clear concentration of the type in southern England and with a band stretching across north Wales and Cheshire. This example represents the first recorded example from south Wales.



The parallel from Potterne is of very similar form but is slightly more slender with a maximum width of 8.25mm. Other examples of the Potterne type have been found at Llanarmon-yn-Iân in Denbighshire (Green 1984) where a heavily worn bracelet with smaller terminals but of the same type was found with other gold items (a bracelet, an ingot and a link) and deposited within the socket of a faceted axe of type Gillespie. Excavations at Brean Down, Somerset revealed an associated pair of Potterne Type bracelets and possibly a small fragment from a third. The Brean Down examples are also more slender with maximum widths of 8.2 and 9.2mm. The dating of this bracelet type can be confidently placed in the Ewart Park period of the Late Bronze Age, corresponding to Needham's (1996) Period 7 and dated to 950 - 750BC. The Llanarmon-yn-Iân bracelet was associated with a faceted axe of Ewart Park date, the Potterne find is thought to have been associated with the settlement rather than the midden with a suggested date in the mid 8th century BC. The Brean Down finds may be slightly earlier with a proposed date within the 10th - 9th centuries BC (Bell, 1990 pp71, 108).
Subsequent action: Returned to finder