horse bridle-bit
- Museum number
- 1846,0322.72
- Description
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Copper alloy horse bit.
- Production date
- 50 - 150 (circa)
- Curator's comments
-
From a hoard of metal objects in a pit lined with burnt clay found by chance in ploughing a field in June 1800 near the top of the Polden Hills somewhere near Bridgewater (Harford 1803: 90-1). Harford wrote: "the hoard was ploughed up near the top of Polden Hill near Bridgewater. Polden hill is an eminence on one side of Kings Sedgemoor, a little above the village of Edington, where are evident remains of a Roman station."
According to W.A. Seaby (quoted in C. Fox 1952: 54), the hoard was probably found on Knowle Hill in Bawdrip parish; the source of Seaby's information is not cited, but it may be related to two letters sent to the British Museum (from R. Rainbird Clarke on 26th May 1938 and H.S.L. Dewar on 11th March 1949) which give this location. Mansel Spratling (quoted in Brailsford 1975, 222) has suggested that this could be a confusion arising from the fact that there is a terret from Knowle Hill in Taunton Museum. This terret is very different to the Polden Hill group, and is much more extensively mineralised. It may be safest (as Brailsford has argued) to dismiss the Bawdrip location and accept the original location: 'a little above the village of Edington'.
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There are at least sixteen bridle bits from Polden Hills. All are in the British Museum, except one, which is in the collections of Bristol Museum (reg no.: F1785).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2019 Oct – Dec, Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, Hoards: the hidden history of ancient Britain
2019 28 Jun – 28 Sep, Brading Roman Villa, Isle of Wight, Hoards: the hidden history of ancient Britain
2019 13 Apr – 16 Jun, Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Hoards: the hidden history of ancient Britain
2019 18 Jan – 31 Mar, Ulster Museum, NMNI, Belfast, Hoards: the hidden history of ancient Britain
2018-2019 13 Oct – 5 Jan, Salisbury Museum, Hoards: the hidden history of ancient Britain
2015-2016 3 Dec-22 May, BM, G69a, Hoards: The Hidden History of Ancient Britain
- Acquisition notes
- In sale on March 23rd 1846
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1846,0322.72