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Details
LOT 1031
Roman Inscribed Bronze Bow Brooch
3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.
3 in. (8.19 grams, 78 mm).
Colchester-type brooch shank with seriffed enigmatic legend 'DIXMNM'.
Provenance
Ex important German collection of brooches, 1980s.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Literature
Cf. Various, Report of Colchester and Essex Museum, for the period April Ist, 1937 to March 31st, 1944, Colchester, 1944, pl.III no.3, p.25, for the type.
Footnotes
The inscription 'DIXMNM' is not easy to interpretate. MNM was possibly used as abbreviation for Dis Manibus Monumentum, i.e. ‘Monument to the spirit of the dead’. DIX was a shorter form for he/she/it said (dixit), but also refers sometimes to the numeral 12 (duodecimus).
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