Description

Summary: 1 bronze finger ring with an inset blue glass intaglio with a design of Mars standing, from Potterne, Wiltshire.

Research results

A Roman copper alloy signet ring with blue glass intaglio, found by a metal detectorist operating at Rangebourne Mill, Potterne. The intaglio depicts an uncertain figure, possibly Mars. Although we should not assume that this depiction was necessarily associated with a classical god, rather than a more local equivalent.

This ring was examined by Marshman (2015) as part of thier PhD with the university of Leicester. This PhD undertook a survey of Roman signet rings and intaglios in Britain, criticising previous research which had discussed the objects in almost exclusively art-historical terms, in isolation of the wider archaeological evidence. They highlight that finger rings were an important part of an empire-wide metropolitan tradition due to the importance of sealing in every day tansactions and other contracts. Unlike brooches, signet rings were not a feature of Iron Age dress in Britain, and particularly in the early period appear to have been associated with the roman military and colonia, and those who wished to style themselves as 'Roman'. Wider adoption of signet rings followed in the second and third centuries, when the meaning attributed to them may have changed.