The Hoard of Roman Silver from Great Horwood, Buckinghamshire

Helen Waugh

doi:10.1017/S0003581500062880

The Hoard of Roman Silver from Great Horwood, Buckinghamshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2011

Helen Waugh

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

It seems worth drawing attention afresh to the small hoard of Roman silver found in 1872 between Great Horwood and Winslow, about five or six miles south-east of Buckingham. The hoard deserves to be better known than it is, and one of its most interesting components has never been illustrated; there is also another piece which is so likely to have been part of it, though now separated from the rest, that it ought at least to be recorded.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , March 1966 , pp. 60 - 71

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500062880 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 60 note 1} Records of Bucks, iv (1870), 209Google Scholar. Search in local newspapers which might have reported other details produced, however, no result. I am very grateful to the Buckinghamshire County Library at Aylesbury for their help with this.

^{page 60 note 2} Proc. Soc. Ant., 2nd ser., VI, ii, 81.

^{page 60 note 3} Arch. Journ. xxxiii (1876), 357Google Scholar.

^{page 60 note 4} V.C.H. Bucks, ii, 7.

^{page 60 note 5} Museum nos. 96. 80–101. 80.

^{page 62 note 1} A. O. Curie, The Treasure of Traprain, no. 30.

^{page 62 note 2} B.M. Handbook, The Mildenhall Treasure, 2nd ed., no. 13.

^{page 62 note 3} B.M. Early Christian Catalogue, no. 310.

^{page 62 note 4} Curie, op. cit., nos. 3, 31, 32, 45, 69, 86, 100, 107, 110.

^{page 62 note 5} Brett, G. L., in Papers of the British School at Rome, xv (1939), 33 ff.Google Scholar: a convenient list in a study the style. Others could now be added, e.g. Mildenhall, nos. 6, 16, 17, 32–34, in addition to no. 13, mentioned above; Balline, pl. 1, 4 (O'Riordain, S. P., Proc. R. Ir. Acad. li, C. 3 (1947), 35 ff.Google Scholar); Kaiseraugst, nos. 3, 5, and 10 (Laur-Belart, R., Der spätrömische Silberschatz von Kaiseraugst, 1963Google Scholar. The hoard has not yet been fully published.); apart from isolated examples, such as the spoons from late cemeteries mentioned below.

^{page 62 note 6} See Brett's discussion of this question, ibid, 37 ff. His own arguments for Germanic influence and a technical link with chip-carving are not, however, convincing. It is difficult to believe that this type of decoration owed anything to chip-carving; nor is it clear that a gouge was in fact used. It is surely more likely that inspiration flowed the other way round, and in any case there would seem to be a closer connexion between chip-carving and niello-filled ornament such as that on, for example, two pieces in the Kaiseraugst Treasure: no. 9 and part of the formal decoration on no. 3.

^{page 62 note 7} See Brett's map, with the additions referred to above.

^{page 62 note 8} e.g. Balline, Coleraine, Traprain.

^{page 62 note 9} Mildenhall nos. 32–34.

^{page 62 note 10} No. 100.

^{page 62 note 11} B.M. Early Christian Catalogue, no. 371.

^{page 62 note 12} J. Pilloy, Études sur d'anciens lieux de sépulture dans l'Aisne, i, 178, and no. 12 on the last of the group of unnumbered plates.

^{page 62 note 13} T. Eck, Les Deux Cimetières gallo-romains de Vermandet de Saint-Quentin, pl. 1, no. 22 (grave 5).

^{page 63 note 1} Nos. 27 and 28, pls. 8a and 8b.

^{page 63 note 2} O. M. Dalton, Antiq. Journ. ii, 89. Cf. AETERNVS VIVAS on a lost bronze spoon from Colchester (C.I.L. vii, 1297) and ‥ ] NE VIVAS on a lost spoon from Sunderland Arch. Journ. xxvi (1869), 76Google Scholar).

^{page 63 note 3} Proc. Soc. Ant., 1st ser., iv, 27. B.M. Catalogue of Finger Rings, nos. 1205–7; and B.M. Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain (1951), p. 26 and fig. 13, no. 6.

^{page 63 note 4} Hull Museum Publications nos. 70 and 80; O'Neil, B. H. St. J., Arch. Journ. xc (1933), 301Google Scholar. The bezel of the ring is said to have been ‘crudely engraved’ with a bird.

^{page 63 note 5} B.M. Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain (1922), p. 67, referring to a hoard from Guisborough, Yorks; R. Elgee, The Romans in Cleveland, p. 8, describing a hoard from Whorlton which, he says, is the one recorded by the B.M. as from Guisborough. The silver ring had the ‘dotted figure of a bird on the square bezel’ according to both accounts. The ring is not illustrated.

^{page 64 note 1} Painter, K. S., Jouru. Arch. Ass., 3rd ser. xxviii (1965), no. 17, pl. vGoogle Scholar.

^{page 64 note 2} J. P. Bushe-Fox, First Report on the Excavation of the Roman Fort at Richborough, Kent, p. 46, no. 25, and pl. xv.

^{page 64 note 3} R. E. M. Wheeler and T. V. Wheeler, Report on the Excavation of the Prehistoric, Roman and Post-Roman Site in Lydttey Park, Gloucestershire, p. 78 and fig. 14, no. 37.

^{page 64 note 4} Proc.Soc. Ant. Scot, xxxix (1904–5), 217Google Scholar, fig. 14.

^{page 64 note 5} Proc. Prehist. Soc. xxvi (1960), 149 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 64 note 6} Haverfield, F., J.R.S. iv (1914), 1 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 65 note 1} R. Laur-Belart, op. cit., p. 26, no. 11 and Abb. 16.

^{page 66 note 1} G. Chenet, La Céramique gallo-romaine d'Argonne du IV^e siècle, et la terre-sigillée décorée à la molette (1941).

^{page 66 note 2} No. 16 and Abb. 18.

^{page 66 note 3} P. LaBaume, Römisches Kunstgewerbe, p. 106.

^{page 66 note 4} Kaiseraugst, Traprain, Coleraine, Dorchester (Dorset), Amesbuiy, South Ferriby, Whorlton.

^{page 66 note 5} See p. 60.

^{page 66 note 6} This is road 166 in Mr. I. D. Margary's system for Roman roads in Britain: The Viatores, Roman Roads in the South-East Midlands, p. 309.

^{page 66 note 7} Records of Bucks, xvi, 29 (Thornborough barrows) and J.R.S. liii, 136 (Bourton Grounds).

^{page 66 note 8} V.C.H. Bucks, ii, 4 and 11; Records of Bucks. iii, 33, and v, 355; Wolverton and District Archaeological Society, Newsletter, no. 6.

^{page 68 note 1} Ashmolean Museum no. 1927. 751.

^{page 68 note 2} See the recent discussion by Mrs. S. C. Hawkes in Med. Archaeol. v (1916), 10 ff.

^{page 69 note 1} J. Werner, Bonner Jahrbücher, clviii (1958), 372ff.; 411 for list and Abb. 15 for distribution map. Cf. G.Behrens, ‘Spätrömische Kerbschnittschallen’, in the Schumacher Festschrift, especially 293, Abb. 12.

^{page 69 note 2} S. C. Hawkes, op. cit., pp. 23 and 45–50, fig. 15.

^{page 69 note 3} The Kostheim grave-goods, including the strap-end, are illustrated in Werner's paper already cited, Abb. 20.

^{page 69 note 4} S. C. Hawkes, op. cit., fig. 15 g.

^{page 69 note 5} J. P. Bushe-Fox, Third Report on the Excavation of the Roman Fort at Richborough, Kent, p. 81 and pl. xii, fig. 1, no. 35.

^{page 69 note 6} Silver spoons were occasionally used by the foederati and laeti and their families, as the cemeteries show; besides those from Abbeville and St. Quentin, mentioned above, other odd examples have come from Montceau-le-Neuf, Vermand, Spontin, and Samson.

^{page 69 note 7} O. M. Dalton, op. cit., p. 90.

^{page 69 note 8} Cabrol, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, under ‘Cuiller’, 3180.

^{page 69 note 9} V.C.H. Oxon. i, 294, and pl. xiii, f.

^{page 69 note 10} Other griffin-like creatures appear on spoons in the Canterbury hoard: J.R.S. liii (1963), pl. xvi.

^{page 69 note 11} Op. cit., pp. 20 ff. I am very grateful to Mrs. Hawkes for kindly commenting on the Little Horwood spoon and its dating when this note was in draft.

^{page 70 note 1} The Mildenhall Treasure, p. 16.

^{page 70 note 2} A. O. Curle, op. cit., pp. 92 and 93.

^{page 71 note 1} J. M. C. Toynbee, Art in Roman Britain, p. 172; and information from the Goldsmiths' Company.

^{page 71 note 2} D. Atkinson, Report on Excavations at Wroxeter…, 1923–1927, pp. 196–8.

Article contents

The Hoard of Roman Silver from Great Horwood, Buckinghamshire

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests