Description

Summary: 1 bronze decorated D shaped terret ring with circular section, from Cold Kitchen Hill, Brixton Deverill, Wiltshire.

Research results

An ornate Late Iron Age to Early Roman D-shaped terret, revealed by ploughing in the area surrounding Cold Kitchen Hill, the site of an Iron Age settlement. Terrets are a piece of horse harness equipment used to guide the reigns and prevent their getting tangled. This is one of only 5 slotted terrets known in Iron Age and Roman Britain, and the only from the South of the country. Terrets from this period are often found outside of secure archaeological contexts and their dating evidence is poor, however, this terret probably dates to between AD c. 1-75.

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.