Dag: 15 december 2020

Gevonden door André van Rekom

Materiaal: goud

Diameter: 19 mm

Gewicht: 3,5 gr

The ring definitely falls in the category of early Germanic knotted wire rings, which we more often see in copper-alloy. The basic type, with a central double slip-knot, certainly goes back well into the Roman period. However, the composition of the band from multiple (rather than a single) wire is unusual and may be seen to represent an attempt to replicate the appearance of the laid-on wire ornament of ‘carpet style’ bands found on elite Merovingian-period rings. The wire used here appears to be hammered, not drawn, so a pre-Viking-period date is certainly possible. Knotted wire rings in prestige materials are more commonly found in peripheral (often pagan) Germanic, rather than Frankish, contexts, where the influence of Late Roman/Byzantine elite rings styles was less keenly felt. A Frisian or continental Saxon origin seems likely. Of course, the greatest number of knotted wire rings in prestige materials survive from Early Anglo-Saxon Britain. A pair of silver rings with similar double slip knots were found attached in a necklace in a 7th-century female grave at Finglesham, Kent; a gold ring of the same form was more recently found at Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham (PAS: DUR-92E7D2). On the continent, a related copper-alloy ring survives from Dieue-sur-Meuse. These, too, are thought to date no later than the 7th century but are constructed more conventionally, with single wire bands.