As we have seen in previous posts, some hoards are found during archaeological excavations meaning we have a bit more background on the nature of their discovery and wider context. The Winchester Brooks hoard was found during excavations in the centre of Winchester in the 1990s. The hoard had been buried in a small rubbish pit dug near the outside wall of a building which appears to have fell into disrepair by the end of the fourth century. The hoard consists of a variety of artefacts including coins, spoon fragments and beads but it may survive incomplete since the upper fills of the pit were removed quickly by excavators before it became apparent that the contents of the hoard were scattered amongst the layers. The hoard has not been published or examined in detail since its discovery and the team were excited to visit Hampshire Cultural Trust to study its contents.
The Winchester Brooks hoard included about 160 scattered beads which probably comprised a single necklace, as one copper alloy hook-and-eye fastener was also found. Most beads were glass, in a variety of shapes and colours, though there were a few coral and amber beads too – some green glass biconical beads and coral long cylinder beads are shown in the photographs. Mixed necklaces including a variety of glass beads together with those in other materials are typical of the end of the Roman period, continuing in the fifth century and later. Coral beads are relatively uncommon in Britain but do occur in some of our other hoards too. There, they are found with silver rather than copper alloy necklace clasps, representing at least two complete coral bead necklaces. The coral beads in the Winchester Brooks hoard probably originally came from such a necklace. The inclusion on the Winchester necklace of small numbers of many different types of beads, including the coral ones, suggests the curation of beads from broken strings where most of the beads have been lost. The beads may have been treasured heirlooms, although the necklace could also have been purchased from a merchant who collected and recycled beads of various types.
The 87 or so coins are mostly base metal and survive in a poor condition making it quite a challenge to identify the different types. Of those that were identifiable, most date to the middle of the fourth century (c. 348-364 CE) and a high proportion of these coins were also copies. Coins minted later in the fourth century are far fewer in number and the single siliqua of Honorius (395-402 CE) is perhaps the most interesting find. Like the base metal coins, the siliqua is also in a poor condition and you might not notice that the coin has been pierced when you look at the image below (it has!) The coin was probably repurposed as a pendant for the necklace and the location of the piercing suggests that the reverse of the coin depicting Roma seated left on a cuirass holding a Victory on globe was displayed by the wearer. More widely, there aren’t huge numbers of pierced siliqua finds from Britain, though several stray finds are recorded by the PAS and they are found in a few other hoards. Both the Bowerchalke and Milman Road I hoards also contained pierced silver coins, for example, though their reuse in jewellery is not as clear as the Winchester Brooks example.
