Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-5q6g5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-05T05:46:37.971Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Black Mineral Amulet from Colchester's North Cemetery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2020

Nina Crummy  and
Glynn J.C. Davis
Nina Crummy
Affiliation:
Copford, Colchester ninacrummy@yahoo.com
Glynn J.C. Davis
Affiliation:
Colchester Museums Glynn.Davis@colchester.gov.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A black mineral amulet in the form of a human bust is the only one of its kind so far found in Britain. Found c. 1900 during brick-making, it probably came from the burial of a young female. The authenticity of its provenance, context and associated finds is reviewed in the light of other grave groups, and its iconography and use are compared to those of other black mineral amulets from Britain and the Continent. Supplementary material available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X20000094) comprises a short biography of Henry Money and a catalogue of beads.

Keywords

jetamuletColchesterburials

Information

Type
Shorter Contributions
Information
Britannia , Volume 51 , November 2020 , pp. 376 - 387
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors, 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allason-Jones, L. 1996: Roman Jet in the Yorkshire Museum, YorkGoogle Scholar
Barber, B., and Bowsher, D. 2000: The Eastern Cemetery of Roman London: Excavations 1983–1990, MoLAS Monograph 4, LondonGoogle Scholar
Barton, C.A. 1993: The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster, PrincetonCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becatti, G. 1955: Oreficerie antiche dalle minoiche alle barbariche, RomeGoogle Scholar
Blagg, T. 1979: ‘The use of terra-cotta for architectural ornament in Italy and the western provinces’, in McWhirr, A. (ed.), Roman Brick and Tile, BAR International Series 68, Oxford, 267–84Google Scholar
Bonfante, L. 2003: Etruscan Dress, Baltimore and LondonGoogle Scholar
Bradshaw, J. 1980: ‘A bronze amulet from Boughton Aluph’, Archaeologia Cantiana 96, 394–6Google Scholar
Braithwaite, G. 2007: Faces from the Past: A Study of Roman Face Pots from Italy and the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire, BAR International Series 1651, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
BSSLL = Bulletin de la Societé scientifique et littéraire du LimbourgGoogle Scholar
Calvi, M.C. 2005: Aquileia: le ambre romane, AquileiaGoogle Scholar
CMR = Colchester Museum ReportGoogle Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2002a: ‘Bottles for Bacchus?’, in Aldhouse-Green, M. and Webster, P. (eds), Artefacts and Archaeology: Aspects of the Celtic and Roman World, Cardiff, 132–51Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2002b: ‘An overview of the small finds from Catterick’, in P. Wilson, Cataractonium 2: Roman Catterick and its Hinterland: Excavations and Research, 1958–1997, CBA Research Report 129, York, 24–43Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2010: ‘Objects of glass, shale, bone and metal’, in Booth, P., Simmonds, A., Boyle, A., Clough, S., Cool, H.E.M. and Poore, D., The Late Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester: Excavations 2000–2005, Oxford Archaeology Monograph 10, Oxford, 266–309Google Scholar
Croom, A. 2002: Roman Clothing and Fashion, StroudGoogle Scholar
Crummy, N. 1983: The Roman Small Finds from Excavations in Colchester 1971–9, Colchester Archaeological Report 2, ColchesterGoogle Scholar
Crummy, N. 2010: ‘Bears and coins: the iconography of protection in late Roman infant burials’, Britannia 41, 37–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crummy, N., Crummy, P., and Crossan, C. 1993: Excavations of Roman and Later Cemeteries, Churches and Monastic Sites in Colchester, 1971–88, Colchester Archaeological Report 9, ColchesterGoogle Scholar
Cultrera, G. 1916: ‘Bettona: tomba a camera etrusco-romana’, Notizie degli scavi di antichità 1916.1, 3–29Google Scholar
Davis, G. 2018: ‘Rubbing and rolling, burning and burying: the magical use of amber in Roman London’, in Parker, A. and McKie, S., Material Approaches to Roman Magic, TRAC Themes in Roman Archaeology 2, Oxford, 69–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drury, P.J. 1988: The Mansio and Other Sites in the South-Eastern Sector of Caesaromagus, Chelmsford Archaeological Trust Report 3.1/CBA Research Report 66, LondonGoogle Scholar
Eckardt, H. 2014: Objects and Identities in Roman Britain and the North-Western Provinces, York, https://doi.org/10.5284/1018083CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia Marcos, V. and Vidal Encinas, J.M. 1995: ‘Asturica Augusta y Castra Legionis VII Geminae en la Asturia Cismontana’, in Astures: Pueblos y culturas en la frontera del Imperio Romano, Gran Enciclopedia Asturiana, Gijon, 113–28Google Scholar
Guido, M. 1979: ‘Catalogue of the beads’, in G. Clarke, The Roman Cemetery at Lankhills, Winchester Studies 3.2, Oxford, 297–300Google Scholar
Guiraud, H. 1989: ‘Bagues et anneaux à l’époque romaine en Gaule’, Gallia 46, 173–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagen, W. 1937: ‘Kaiserzeitliche Gagatarbeiten aus dem rheinischen Germanien’, Bonner Jahrbücher 142, 77–144Google Scholar
Hall, J., and Wardle, A. 2005: ‘Dedicated followers of fashion? Decorative bone hairpins from Roman London’ in Crummy, N. (ed.), Image, Craft and the Classical World: Essays in Honour of Donald Bailey and Catherine Johns, Instrumentum Monograph 29, Montagnac, 173–9Google Scholar
Henig, M. 1984: ‘Amber amulets’, Britannia 15, 244–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henig, M., and Wickenden, N.P. 1988: ‘A hoard of jet and shale’, in Drury, P.J., The Mansio and Other Sites in the South-Eastern Sector of Caesaromagus, Chelmsford Archaeological Trust Report 3.1/CBA Research Report 66, London, 107–10Google Scholar
Hull, M.R. 1958: Roman Colchester, Society of Antiquaries of London Research Report 20, LondonCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johns, C. 1982: Sex or Symbol: Erotic Images of Greece and Rome, LondonGoogle Scholar
Johns, C. 1996: The Jewellery of Roman Britain: Celtic and Classical Traditions, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jones, A. 2003: ‘Some unusual Roman antefixes from Chester’, Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society 78, 23–47Google Scholar
Lawson, A. 1976: ‘Shale and jet objects from Silchester’, Archaeologia 105, 241–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mastrocinque, A. 1991: L'Ambra e L'Eridano: studi sulla letteratura e sul commercio dell'ambra in età preromana, EsteGoogle Scholar
May, T. 1928: Catalogue of the Roman Pottery in the Colchester and Essex Museum, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Métraux, G.P.R. 2009: ‘Prudery and chic in late antique clothing’, in Edmondson, J. and Keith, A. (eds), Roman Dress and the Fabric of Roman Culture, London, 271–93Google Scholar
Mikler, H. 1997: Die römischen Funde aus Bein im Landesmuseum Mainz, Instrumentum Monograph 1, MontagnacGoogle Scholar
Parker, A. 2015: ‘The fist-and-phallus pendants from Roman Catterick’, Britannia 46, 135–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, A. 2016: ‘Staring at death: the jet gorgoneia of Roman Britain’, in Hoss, S. and Whitmore, A. (eds), Small Finds and Ancient Social Practices in the Northwest Provinces of the Roman Empire, Oxford, 98–113CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RCHM Eboracum = Royal Commission on Historical Monuments 1962: Eboracum: Roman York, LondonGoogle Scholar
Snowden, F.M. 1970: Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience, Cambridge, MAGoogle Scholar
Vanvinckenroye, W. 1984: De Romeinse zuidwest-begraafplaats van Tongeren (Opgravingen 1972–1981), TongerenGoogle Scholar
Wickenden, N.P. 1992: The Temple and Other Sites in the North-Eastern Sector of Caesaromagus, CBA Research Report 75/Chelmsford Archaeological Report 9, LondonGoogle Scholar
Yon, M. 1977: ‘Les bijoux d'ambre de la nécropole d'Aléria (Corse)’, Mélanges de l’école française de Rome 89.2, 589–618CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Crummy and Davis supplementary material

Appendix S2

Download Crummy and Davis supplementary material(File)
File 16 KB
Supplementary material: File

Crummy and Davis supplementary material

Appendix S1

Download Crummy and Davis supplementary material(File)
File 14.5 KB