cauldron;
handle
- Museum number
- 1852,0626.48
- Description
-
Copper alloy cauldron handle. Most likely part of the same vessel as 1852,0626.48. Circular ring handle with a T-shaped cross-section. The 'head' of the T is to the inside. The handle attachment has pronounced flared side-flanges, one of which is broken. The depth of the flanges increases towards the foot (10-15 mm). The arch has four hollow, rounded ribs with narrow moulding in between each. Six studs, three on either foot of the handle attachment, attach the rim to the body. The studs are irregularly spaced and end at the shoulder of the body and are secured at the underside by a piece of run-off metal. Both of the handle attachments have sheets of the rim and body still ahering. One of the sheets has been folded over to form a tubular rim that is gripped by a tubular penannular ring, simulating the one-piece cast of handle attachments with rim grips. The tubular section is still filled with clay. The lower section of the sheet is very fragmentary but shows evidence of rivet holes. The suface has a green patina with areas of corrosion products.
- Production date
- 800BC - 600BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 132 millimetres (Ring handle)
-
Length: 90 millimetres (Shhet)
-
Weight: 510.10 grammes
-
Thickness: 14 millimetres (Ring handle)
-
Width: 70 millimetres (Sheet)
- Curator's comments
- This is part of a class B2 cauldron under Leed's (1930) scheme. The dating of B2 cauldrons is based upon their association in the Sompting hoard. Fragments of a B2 cauldron were found with sixteen Sompting socketed axes which places the cauldron to the Llyn Fawr (Ha C) period.
The general form of Type Battersea vessels is based upon two surviving intact examples. the body is gobular with a marked shoulder and everted rim. The rim had a number of concentric embossed ribs. The exterior edge is usually plain with a tubular rim clipped over it as a separate component. The body has three tiers of sheets, with two sheets in each of the upper tiers. The sheets are fastend together with dome-headed rivets in horizontal seams, whereas the vertical seams have flat-headed rivets. The arches of the handle attachments have three to four rounded ribs with prominent lateral flanges. They are secured to the vessel by a set of thrre stud through each foot of the arch.
Type Battersea represented by two complete vessels and seven handle fragments, which have often survived as pairs. One of the complete vessels comes from the Thames at Battersea and gives the type its name. The other vessel was found in the Bann Valley, in the east fo Northern Ireland.
Reference
Gerloff, S. 2010. Atlantic Cauldrons and Buckets of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Ages in Western Europe. Präehistorische Bronzefunde II, 18. Franz Steiner Verlag Stuttgart, Stuttgart.
Leed, E.T. 1930. A Bronze Age cauldron from the River Cherwell, Oxfordshire, with notes on cauldrons and other bronze vessels of allied types. Archaeologia 80, 1 - 36.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition notes
- No other details are known of its find spot or discovery before being acquired by the British Museum in 1852.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1852,0626.48
