LOT 0302

Pre-Viking Gold Filigree Aroma Bucket Pendant

CIRCA 4TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.

5/8 in. (1.49 grams, 15 mm).

Miniature drum-shaped vessel with strap handle, the body decorated with granule clusters. [No Reserve]

Private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s.
Westminster collection, central London, UK.

See Khrapunov, I. & Stylegar, F.A., Inter Ambo Maria, Contacts between Scandinavia and the Crimea in the Roman Period; Бажан И, А., Каргапольцев С, Ю, 1989, Об одной категории украшений-амулетов римского времени в Восточной Европе, СА, No.3; also see Meaney, A., Anglo-Saxon Amulets and Curing Stones, Oxford, BAR British Series 96, 1981, p.166-168, for discussion of the type.

Pendants in the form of miniature buckets have been found in a number of pagan Anglo-Saxon and Viking contexts and are generally made of bronze or iron, with gold examples being rare; three gold examples were found with the hoard from Hoen, Norway. Bronze bucket amulets have been found at Driffield in Yorkshire, and Vimose bog in Denmark, among other places. In form they represent wooden buckets bound with bronze or iron bands which have been found in Anglo-Saxon and Viking graves and are believed to have held mead or ale and were used to replenish the cups from which warriors drank. As amulets they probably represent the ecstatic power of alcoholic drink and the role of women as the dispensers of these precious beverages.