#FindsFriday #FerrousFriday: `Special decorative effects used for weapons:
Sword-blade impressed with a crescent-shaped makers stamp on the blade, La Tene II 250-120 BC
Augsburg, Germany. The crescent may represent the crescent moon.
Suspension chain to attach a sword scabbard to a belt, La Tene II 300-150 BC, from an inhumation grave at Somsois, Marne, France. The front surfaces were ornamented with circular punch marks.
Dagger with stylised anthropoid hilt, 400-300 BC, from the River Avon
Iron dagger with tin antennae handle, 650-550 BC, ornamented with engraved scrolls, Spain.` #Celtic #IronAge
Source: British Museum

#FindsFriday: The Chertsey Shield, Abbey Meads, Chertsey, Surrey, is the only shield from the period 400-200 BC to be made entirely of bronze. Other bronze shields had wooden backings. It was probably made for display rather than for battle. The shield was deliberately placed in the River Thames, perhaps as an offering to the gods.` #Celtic #IronAge
Source: British Museum

Today, we are presenting a beautiful #Roman #coin from the 3rd century for #findsfriday.

It is a #denarius of #Severus #Alexander, who is depicted on the obverse. On the reverse is #Mars and the inscription MARTI PACIFERO ([dedicated] to Mars, the bringer of peace).

Given what's going on in the world, this is perfect for today's #findsfriday. Those who are responsible for the current state of affairs may feel addressed.

Hand of a gilded bronze statue of an Roman emperor.
From Kempten, 1st to 3rd c. AD
On display at Archäologische Staatssammlung
me
#archaeology #RomanArchaeology

A 1st century AD Roman saucepan (trulleus) - part of a hoard discovered in 2005 by a metal detectorist at Kingston Deverill in Wiltshire. Now part of the collections at Salisbury Museum. My own. #FindsFriday #RomanBritain #RomanArchaeology

Face urns were manufactured during the Roman period in Britain. They were widely used in the western provinces of Roman Empire. Potsherds have been found at burial sites & shrines but also inside Roman forts and within domestic settings, especially at Hadrian'sWall. #FindsFriday

#FindsFriday: `The Sedgeford Gold Torc, probably buried before 100-50 BC. This torc from Norfolk was found broken. The body is made from 64 wires and coiled around a former. 25 metres of wire was required. The terminal was cast in mould and is decorated with a design similar to that on the Snettisham Great Torc.
The terminal was found in 2005. It is the missing part of the Sedgeford Gold Torc found in 1965.` #Celtic #IronAge
Source: British Museum

#FindsFriday: `Feasting was an important social and political activity in #IronAge Europe. Hosting feasts enabled people to reinforce their wealth and status, binding guests in allegiance and loyalty. Hosts served large quantities of meat, bread, beer and mead in beautifully decorated metal cauldrons and flagons, such as this example from Basse-Yutz, France. Feasts could also be celebrations, probably accompanied by music, singing, dancing.` #Celtic #IronAge
Source: British Museum

#FindsFriday #FerrousFriday: `Cart-burials are unique to East Yorkshire. Typically the cart was dismantled, and the wheels placed side by side on the floor of the grave. Then the corpse was laid in the centre, over the wheels, with the linked pole and axle arching over it. Finally the box-body of the cart was lowered into the grave, inverted to form a canopy over the corpse, with the yoke alongside. In all eleven have been discovered in Britain; six were excavated systematically.
During excavation the metal fittings of the carts have been found: the iron tyres and nave-hoops from the wheels, and the linch-pins to secure the wheel to the axle, along with harness-fittings such as the terrets (rein-rings) from the yoke, and horse-bits. Otherwise the cart-burials were not richly appointed. Two women had been buried with their iron mirrors, and two men had swords in decorated scabbards. The most striking find was a complete tunic of mail draped over the corpse at Kirkburn. Perhaps the earliest mail tunic from Europe, it was very badly corroded and only a small sample can be displayed.` #Celtic #IronAge
Source: British Museum

#FindsFriday: `This beautiful #IronAge armlet, usually worn on the upper arm around the bicep, dates from the end of the Irish iron age, a time of heroes and mystery. It is made of yellow bronze and was originally cast around the second century AD. It is about 10cm across, or three inches.
It was discovered where the Deel and Boyne rivers meet in Balymahon, County Meath, in the mid 19th century. It may have been cast into this boundary-place as a sacrifice, or may have been lost through mischance or conflict. The armlet has whirling triskeles with holes in them in the shape of birds, and once had a third coil which was lost, although an amateur attempt was made to repair it with rivets, showing it had great value, although its owner didn't have the means to pay for a proper repair.
This artifact is particularly curious since it comes from a period known as the "Irish dark ages", when the Roman empire held sway over southern Britain. During this time there is a break in records and signs of a marked decline in the population of Ireland, with both farms and settlements returning to forest and peat bog.
As Donnchadh Ó Corráin noted: "the impact of human activity upon the flora around the bogs from which the pollen came was less between c. 200 BC and c. AD 300 than either before or after."
Who knows what wonders and terrors were experienced by the last wearer of this beautiful item, how they struggled, and how, in the end, they came to lose their prized armlet?` #Celtic
Source: https://emeraldisle.ie/iron-age-bronze-armlet

An incised Anglo-Saxon brooch from the Staffordshire Hoard. The hoard was discovered in 2009 near the village of Hammerwich in Staffordshire. This item is part of the collections at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke. My own. #FindsFriday #AngloSaxon #staffordshire

The Helgö Buddha was found from the famous Iron Age trade centre in 1956. It stands about 8.4 cm tall. It was manufactured in northwest India, perhaps around the 6th century AD. Images: Swedish History Museum & Holmqvist et al., Excavations at Helgö I, 113. #FindsFriday

#FindsFriday: `Bronze 'jockey-cap' helmet, La Tène III 120-50 BC, found in the river Marne near Coolus
Made of thin sheet bronze, the helmet could provide little protection.` #Celtic
Source: British Museum

#FindsFriday #FerrousFriday: Weapons and equipment parts buried with men in Gaul, 250-150 BC
`La Tène II sword in its iron scabbard: they were deliberately bent before burial.
Forged iron and cast bronze suspension chains. Suspension chains replaced sets of rings to attach the scabbard to a belt sometime after 300 BC and are typical of burials in La Tène II.` #Celtic
Source: British Museum

#FindsFriday: Jewellery from a woman's grave in the Somsois Cemetery, 250-150 BC
`Morel records that the young woman was buried wearing a full suite of jewellery - a torc round her neck with the beads near it, brooches on her chest, a bangle on the left wrist, a pair of anklets and a chain-link belt at the waist. Such belts were the most notable change in the costume of women and girls in the 3rd century.` #Celtic
Source: British Museum

#FindsFriday #FerrousFriday: `The Kirkburn Sword, Kirkburn, East Yorkshire, buried 300-200 BC
This sword and scabbard were found in the grave of a man in his early 20s to late 30s when he died. The sword is made of iron and the scabbard has a decorated bronze
front and an iron back.
The man was placed in the grave in a crouched position with his knees pulled towards his chest. The sword and scabbard were positioned behind his back. As part of the burial rite the remains of a pig were placed on the man's chest.
As a final act before the grave was filled in three spears were thrust into the man's chest. This burial rite has been recorded in other graves from East Yorkshire and was part of the ceremonies associated with the burial.` #Celtic
Source: British Museum

12th century carved stone grave slab from St. Peter’s Church in Northampton. It was found in 1843 being used as a door lintel in a cottage in nearby Black Lion Hill. My own. #FindsFriday #Medieval #Northampton

There are Bronze Age hoards from Finland. These necklaces, bracelets and other bronze objects are from the Lusmansaari hoard from Inari, Lapland. It dates to 900-700 BC. It is unusual among c. 200 bronze objects from Finland in total. #FindsFriday

#FindsFriday: Decorated bronze disc known as the 'Bann disc', River Bann at Loughan Island. County Londonderry
Source: Ulster Museum

#FindsFriday: Cult rod from Hallein, Austria, made of cylindrically bent, almost 1 mm thick sheet bronze, with two buttons added at the ends by overmoulding (according to X-ray photographs RGZM Mainz). Three transverse rivets at larger intervals, surface worn. Hollow core not detectable with certainty, but not absolutely necessary due to the stability of the sheet metal. A 1.5 cm long, trapezoidal eyelet just below the upper end. It consists of a wire that has been inserted through the rod and whose notched ends are brought together again on the opposite side. Two 14.2 cm long chains are hooked into the eyelet and end in a crescent-shaped pendant, from which three identical chains with club-shaped pendants extend (length up to 21 cm). The chain links are bent together, flat on the inside and slightly curved on the outside. When they were found, the upper chains with the moon pendant were wrapped around the end of the bar; length 48.5 cm; diameter 0.7 cm-1.1 cm; #Celtic