Chelmsford: Roman Apollo ring with links to Snettisham hoard found

BBC News ^ | April 8, 2023 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

A silver ring unearthed in an Essex field may be connected to a famous Roman jeweller's hoard found in Norfolk in 1985, a historian has said.

The ring is inset with a carnelian carving of the god Apollo. It was found by a metal detectorist near Chelmsford...

The ring seemed to be from the same workshop as the Snettisham hoard of carved gemstones, she added.

The large hoard was found buried in a pot during building work and included 110 unmounted gemstone intaglios - carved gemstones used as seals - silver jewellery and ingots, 110 coins and tools, Its contents are now at the British Museum.

Miss Rogerson said the way it had been carved using long strokes and the fact it dated from AD125 to 175 suggested a connection to the Norfolk hoard.

The ring would have been used as a seal to sign documents by "literate men and women in wider Romano-British society which grew around military towns... leaving an impression of the engraved image in wax", she added.

But it would also have been a "very personal" object.

"We know these people would have had a very close personal relationship with their gods and goddesses," she said.

"Apollo, being the god of healing and prophecy, would hopefully have protected the wearer from harm or illness.

"It's also really interesting because it's evidence of a pagan religion that has its roots in Ancient Greece being worshipped by Romano-British society."

Another ring unearthed at Upper Winchendon, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 2018 is also believed to have links to the Snettisham workshop.

The Essex ring was declared treasure by a coroner and Chelmsford Museum hopes to acquire it.

[SunkenCiv]

The silver ring's carved gemstone is a dark orange-red colour and "is probably a carnelian", experts said in their report to the Essex Coroner.

Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service

[SunkenCiv]

The current page of Archaeologica, some already posted, some for the coming week.

• April 14th, 2023 Edition
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  • Early Romans may have been the first to breed flat-faced dogs Phys
  • ROMAN COINS FOUND ON ISLAND IN BALTIC SEA Heritage Daily
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  • LIBYAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN DANGER DUE TO COASTAL EROSION Heritage Daily
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  • DNA Evidence Sheds Light on One of America's Oldest Black Churches Smithsonian Magazine
  • "Unique" Medieval Christian Art Discovered By Accident In Sudan Desert IFL Science
  • Making the 'invisible' visible: New technique analyzing archaeological bones Phys
  • MOSAIC DISCOVERED IN RUINS OF SUBMERGED ROMAN TOWN Heritage Daily
  • UNDERWATER SURVEY REVEALS NEW DISCOVERIES IN SUNKEN TOWN OF BAIA Heritage Daily
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[SunkenCiv]

Rockin' good week for GGG.

The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, chrono sort:

• 1,100-year-old 'ceremonial' Viking shields were actually used in battle, study suggests [04/11/2023]
• Ancient Humans Cooked And Ate Giant Land Snails Around 170,000 Years Ago [04/13/2023]
• The DNA of three aurochs found next to the Elba shepherdess opens up a new enigma for palaeontology [04/13/2023]
• Does the artificial watercourse in the Hessian Ried have a Roman past? [04/09/2023]
• The Femme Fatale in Ancient Greek Myth (7 Examples) [04/08/2023]
• First Evidence of Sabertoothed Cat Inhabiting the State of Iowa [04/13/2023]
• Fragment of a 1,750-year-old New Testament translation discovered [04/10/2023]
• Genomic study reveals signs of tuberculosis adaptation in ancient Andeans [Precolumbian] [04/10/2023]
• Hidden from the Romans: 200 tons of silver on the shores of the river Lahn [04/09/2023]
• Hoffa Disappearance: New Information Revealed? | Sit Down with Michael Franzese [04/10/2023]
• Israeli archeologists discover 6,000-year-old fishing hook in Ashkelon [04/10/2023]
• Mummies provide the key to reconstruct the climate of the ancient Mediterranean [04/12/2023]
• Neolithic Farmers Processed Cow, Goat and Sheep Milk [04/13/2023]
• New clues to the behavioral variability of Neanderthal hunting parties [04/11/2023]
• New, exhaustive study probes hidden history of horses in the American West [04/11/2023]
• Oldest tartan found to date back to 16th Century [04/10/2023]
• Prehistoric snake bones discovered in south China [04/10/2023]
• Researchers use 21st century methods to record 2,000 years of ancient graffiti in Egypt [04/11/2023]
• Scientists Reveal Ancient Cataclysm That Plunged The World Into Darkness 1,500 Years Ago [04/12/2023]
• See the oldest human ever found in Egypt in stunning new facial approximation [04/12/2023]
• Self-Healing Concrete: What Ancient Roman Concrete Can Teach Us [04/09/2023]
• Severed hands unearthed at ancient Egyptian site may have been battle trophies: Pharaohs may have given golden rewards for enemy appendages [04/12/2023]
• Shipwrecks Reveal Origins of Metal Used to Cast the Benin Bronzes [04/10/2023]
• Skeleton Shatters Long-Held Theory [12/11/2002]
• Teacher Who Perpetrated 'Empty Shelves' Library Hoax to Attack DeSantis Gets His Just Deserts [02/18/2023]
• UV Light Reveals Hidden Fragment Of 1,750-Year-Old New Testament Translation [04/12/2023]
• Yak milk consumption among Mongol Empire elites [04/13/2023]

  ---

  Refresh of something from the FRchives
• Calls to Destroy Egypt's Great Pyramids Begin [07/10/2012]

[SunkenCiv]

A couple Roman coins on Swedish island (linked above) will be added to the Roman Baltic keyword:

https://freerepublic.com/tag/romanbaltic/index?tab=articles

[bert]

In Case you have missed it, there is a BBC series called Detectorist.

It can be streamed on Acorn. The Dectorists are basically constant losers who vainly search the Essex fields with their various super metal detectors. They find poptops and nails ant other such but the longed for gold treasure just never seems to turn up

"The series is set in the fictional small town of Danebury in north Essex. The plot revolves around the lives, loves and metal-detecting ambitions of Andy and Lance, members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club. The main filming location for the series and is Framlingham, a small market town in Suffolk."

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, I’ve seen some episodes.

[Dr. Sivana]

Lesser things have made men into superheroes.

[BenLurkin]

“They find poptops and nails and other such but the longed for gold treasure just never seems to turn up.”

Ah yes. Like Oak Island.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

"It's also really interesting because it's evidence of a pagan religion that has its roots in Ancient Greece being worshipped by Romano-British society."

I do not see why this is interesting or surprising.

Rome needed a state religion to bind their civilization together.

They did not have one. They had a household religion, every house had their gods and the patriarch and matriarch were their priests. This did not lend it's self to elaborate public ceremonies and a priestly class that could be controlled by the state.

Greece had a fully developed state religion and it was just sitting there so the Romans grabbed it and ran off with it. The other major religion in the area at the time would have been the Phoenician. Let us be glad they did not pick that one.

After giving it a dye job and hair cut they now had their state religion. Which they took everywhere.

It would be like being surprised to find bath houses.

[Boogieman]

Toby Jones is great in anything, and that other guy was pretty funny in the Disney “Pirates” movies. I’m sure I’ve seen him in other stuff too, but that’s the role that I remember him from.

[Boogieman]

Also, remember that there were Greek colonies in Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and perhaps in mainland Italy as well. So there were surely Italians already worshiping those Greek gods before the Romans conquered the whole area. So they didn’t have to import the religion all the way from Greece, there would have been local priests and sybils practicing it in their own lands.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Oh sure.

The Greeks took their Pantheon every where but Romans did travel to Greece to learn from them. And they did lift the Greek Pantheon almost wholesale. A few minor changes where we can almost see the original Roman gods peeking out from behind the shrubbery and some rather interesting naked patches where the fit is not quite perfect but they took a lot from the Greeks.

And why not? Greece was the great civilization. One of the lessons they learned was "Write it down" which is where the Twelve Tables of Law came from. Actually they learned what NOT to do in this case because Greece tended to base their laws on custom rather then an explicit contract.

And all of that eventually led to the Constitution we have today.

[SunkenCiv]

Apollo also didn’t have roots in ancient Greece, the Etruscans were from the east, and their Apulu (sp?) was picked up by the Greeks, then the Romans.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

He is in the Iliad. So I would say he does.

Saying he was actually Apaliunas from the Hittites would be on far firmer ground because he was supposedly the builder of the walls of Troy so his being a Hittite deity borrowed by the Greeks would make sense.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

On the other hand if the Romans were descended from Trojan refugees (not sure I buy it but possible) Apollo would have been theirs originally then taken by the Greeks then brought back when the Romans reclaimed him which might be why his name was one of the few that did not change.

[SunkenCiv]

The Iliad isn’t old enough to rule it out. Apollo, in some ways the quintessential Greek god, was not Greek, he just resonated with them.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I am not sure about the Iliad not being old enough.

It carries a lot of clues that says it is certainly of Mycenaean origin. And Apollo's name has been found in Linear B.

I suppose we have to decide what we mean by ancient Greek though. If you mean pre-Mycenaean you are probably right. Importing him from Troy feels right. Importing him from Italy just does not jive.