Ancient Hare

[Fourwings]

Aside from wildlife related pass times one of my other interests is archaeology.
I spend quite a bit of time during the Winter months plodding the local fields with a metal detector.
Over the years I have found many interesting objects from most periods in British history although to this day I have never found anything greatly valuable.
I thought that my latest find would be of interest to WAB members as it has a wildlife theme. A good friend of mine recently ploughed up some fields for the first time and invited me to have a wander over them, the resulting finds were very non-descript apart from this one.
Its a 2nd centuary Roman Bronze zoomorphic brooch in the form of a running Hare and given the fact that it is the best part of two thousand years old its not in bad condition with some of the original blue enamel decoration still intact.
Hope you find it interesting.

[coasty]

Stunning you lucky devil ,, That is a lovely find

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by coasty

Stunning you lucky devil ,, That is a lovely find

Echo, x 2

[SparklySarah]

Yay Archaeology!!!!!! I wandered if a thread would come up.
Doing A level archaeology at the moment and just about to go on a trip to Butser Ancient farm. That is a beautiful brooch you've found. Was there much more in the field? It would be interesting to log down where everything was found. Looking forward to seeing more finds!

Sarah

[Jez]

Let us, therefore, go against (The Romans), trusting boldly to good fortune. Lets us show them that they are Hares & Foxes trying to rule over Dogs & Wolves.

Boudicca's War Speech around AD 61.

Perhaps the Hare there after was held in high esteem after the Romans won the war on Boudicca's Celts.

A very nice find indeed Fourwings....A lovely piece of Ghearr ( Celtic name for the Hare)

[tufftie]

That was a little jammy! However with Oestara in mind 'They're lovely March hares, not silly Rabbits...!''

[The Black Rabbit]

Originally Posted by Fourwings

Aside from wildlife related pass times one of my other interests is archaeology.
I spend quite a bit of time during the Winter months plodding the local fields with a metal detector.
Over the years I have found many interesting objects from most periods in British history although to this day I have never found anything greatly valuable.
I thought that my latest find would be of interest to WAB members as it has a wildlife theme. A good friend of mine recently ploughed up some fields for the first time and invited me to have a wander over them, the resulting finds were very non-descript apart from this one.
Its a 2nd centuary Roman Bronze zoomorphic brooch in the form of a running Hare and given the fact that it is the best part of two thousand years old its not in bad condition with some of the original blue enamel decoration still intact.
Hope you find it interesting.

Very interesting Steve.
I agree, Archaeology is fascinating! (Though I'm afraid I don't have a metal detector and am more interested personally in the near/middle East).
Thanks very much for sharing it with us.
Doug

[Wild-Woman]

That's an excellent find. Really interesting stuff.
The Romans certainly enjoyed their adornments. As you have said, it's in remarkably good nick for something so old. I wonder if today's 'bling' would last as well in the ground atfer 2000 years!

Pot of gold next Steve-then you can retire!

[mrs fish]

What a find , very cool

[Fourwings]

Originally Posted by SparklySarah

Yay Archaeology!!!!!! I wandered if a thread would come up.
Doing A level archaeology at the moment and just about to go on a trip to Butser Ancient farm. That is a beautiful brooch you've found. Was there much more in the field? It would be interesting to log down where everything was found. Looking forward to seeing more finds!

Sarah

Nothing as yet Sarah.
There is no sign of a pottery scatter or building debris, so I think it may well have been a chance loss as is often the case.
I have been working closely with museums and archaeological contractors for nearly 20 years and have assisted on some very interesting sites over the years.
Every single find I make is plotted and recorded on site plans or maps. It all used to be done on paper which was quite alot of work, I now use a Garmin GPS unit to plot the find spots, these are then dowloaded to my laptop via the Garmin software and plotted onto a mapping program that is very similar to Map mate.
Archaeology is a fascinating subject and great fun to study, if I can ever be of any help to you please give me a shout.

[Fourwings]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

Pot of gold next Steve-then you can retire!

Lets just say that I've been looking for one for over 20 years, so I won't hold my breath Jules
Its a nice thought though!