pendant
- Museum number
- ML.1435
- Description
-
'Skull disc' pendant in polished bone, trefoil shaped with three perforations. Probably a human skull fragment. Threaded onto a penannular ring of narrow copper alloy strip, with one finished rounded terminal and one simple cut end.
- Production date
- 600 BC - 400 BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 24.10 millimetres (ring)
-
Weight: 4.16 grammes (total)
-
Thickness: 4.80 millimetres (pendant)
-
Thickness: 2.80 millimetres (ring)
-
Width: 24.70 millimetres (pendant)
- Curator's comments
- Stead and Rigby 1999
Probably human; temporal or parietal bone (?) of the skull. (examined by Louise Martin).
Context: Beads and Amulets; Amuletic pendants; Animal or human bone; 'Skull Discs' in polished bone; Type A: trefoil-shaped disc with three perforations.
Examples from Les Jogasses grave 42 and Juvigny, the latter suspended from a torc (Bretz-Mahler, D., 1971, ‘La civilisation de La Tène en Champagne (Gallia, supplément, 23), pl. 55, 1)
Bibliography: Morel, L., 1898, ‘La Champagne souterraine’ Reims, pl. 4, fig. 11. Described as an amulet but no details of context given in the text (p. 81). Déchelette, J., 1914, ‘Manuel d’archéologie préhistorique, celtique, et gallo-romaine’ 2, 3 ‘Second âge du fer ou épogue de La Tène’, Paris, fig. 560, 6; Smith, R.A., 1925, ‘A guide to the antiquities of the Early Iron Age’ (second edition), London, fig. 61.
- Location
- On display (G50/dc13)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1980, London, BM, Celtic Antiquities from Gaul
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- ML.1435