Massive Bronze Armlet, Stanhope, Scotland

3D Model

This armlet was a hefty and prestigious piece of Iron Age jewellery. Its style is typical of Celtic art made in north-east Scotland, but this one was found much further south, in the Scottish Borders, illustrating contacts at the time. It was buried in a hoard along with some local sword fittings and a Roman bronze vessel – found by a farmer in 1876, while digging out a rabbit on a rocky hillside! Its size suggests it was worn by a man, on the upper arm.

Accession No: X.FA 25

Object name: massive-style armlet

Date: AD 80-200

Style/culture: Roman Iron Age, north-east Scottish ‘massive’ style

Materials: copper alloy (gunmetal, an alloy of copper, tin and zinc)

Model produced by Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark