Description

Summary: fragment of a terret ring, copper alloy

Research results

A fragment of a Roman terret found at the foot of Beacon Hill, North of Devizes, on which sits Oliver's Castle Hill Fort. Terrets are a piece of harness equipment used to guide the reigns and prevent their getting tangled. Skirted terrets are a common form which first appear in the mid-1st century AD, and it has been widely assumed that they were introduced by the Roman military, however, Lewis argues that they ultimately derive from continental celtic metalworking traditions that would have been familiar to the inhabitants of Britain as early as the Late Bronze Age and although rare, possible early skirted terrets are known from a small number of Late Bronze Age hoards.

This terret was examined by Anna Lewis (2015) as part of her PhD thesis on Iron Age and Roman terrets. Making use of new discoveries, particularly from PAS data, she was able to refine the typology and dating of the form, and add nuance to discussion sof their development. She identifies the earliest terrets as dating to 5th century BC in graves in the East of the Country, and divides the subsequent corpus into early, late and imported types. She found that terrets often appear to have been deliberately deposited and found that they were found in the greatest quantities in the North East, followed by the South West and East Midlands.