English: Treasure case 2009 T250: Declared treasure but museum unable to acquire, returned to finder

A Roman gold finger-ring set with a green gem (emerald) and inlaid with blue enamel. The slender hoop is in the form of a coiled snake (1¾ coils) with 'scaly' texturing on inner and outer faces. The snake head and shoulders comprise the bezel, with a tiny rectangular emerald in a rubbed-over setting prominently positioned just behind the head. Behind that a sinuous gold filigree appears to represent another tiny snake. The textured scales of the outer body of the principal snake were originally filled with blue enamel, part of which survives.

Romano-British snake jewellery, above all silver finger-rings, is quite common, but this ring differs both in material and in its distinctive and idiosyncratic form. A gold snake ring from Mainz, Germany (F. Henkel, Die römischen Fingerringe der Rheinlande und der benachbarten Gebiete, Berlin, 1913, no. 35), un-dated but regarded as Roman, is of closely similar form, and is also set with an emerald in the same position.

Date: 1^st-4th century AD.

Diameter: 22.52mm, Thickness: 5.45mm Weight: 5.17g

Non-destructive surface metal analysis conducted at the British Museum indicated a gold content of 95-99% and a silver content of 1-3%. The green stone was identified by Raman Spectroscopy as emerald. In age and precious metal content the object qualifies as Treasure under the terms of the 1996 Treasure Act.

Ralph Jackson
Dept. of Prehistory & Europe British Museum
22^nd February 2010