Posts in Category: Iron Age

Quirky Quern in festive puddingstone 

Friday, December 21, 2018 7:54:00 PM Categories: Iron Age Roman

Well we have been looking at our recent archaeological records of Norfolk finds hoping to find something fitting for the current 2018 Christmas festive season.  We were drawing a blank until we came across this rather nicely preserved Iron Age to Roman quern stone. What has that got to do with the festive season I hear you ask, very little I guess, until you know that it’s made out of ‘puddingstone,’ sourced just down the road in Hertfordshire.  There are no figs in this though and it’s a bit on the crunchy side, so we made it a bit more festive with a sprig of holly.

Usually we provide a link to the PAS database so you can see the record for the Quern in full, on this occasion however we have included a screen shot of the database page allowing you to see the format and the precise description and interpretation of the object. If it is too small to read press Control and + together on your keyboard to magnify the screen. If you are still unable to read the description the link to the database record is as follows  https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/930847

Merry Christmas to one and all.

 

 

 

October - Divine Bovine 

Friday, October 2, 2015 11:32:00 AM Categories: Accessories Animals Copper Iron Age Metal

Inspired by the Celtic art exhibition featuring at the British Museum until 31st January, this month we have our very own Norfolk example of the wonderful art from the period to show you.

Photo of Iron Age mountThe object is a heavily stylised Iron Age bovine mount, which despite several thousand years in the ground remains very crisp with well-defined features. The sinuous style is benign and soft, with horns and large rounded eyes and nostrils. Bulls’ heads are often featured during the Iron Age period on objects such as vessel mounts, but the exact purpose of this particular piece is presently unclear.  It is no doubt a terminal mount of some kind, held to the shaft of the parent object by pins or rivets at the socketed base. It is possibly a terminal from a drinking horn or perhaps a staff, but either way its significance or status as an object would be justified by the very high level of skill and craftsmanship required to create it.

The mount was discovered in a ploughed field by a Norfolk metal detectorist, who most importantly also supplied a full grid reference for the find-spot to enable it to be accurately added to the Historic Environment Record. The full record can be seen at www.finds.org.uk using the search reference NMS-178AE0.

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