Winchester Hoard,UK
trees at the time, sug- the Romans didn’t get gesting that they were them. hidden for safekeeping. What makes these Rather sad, really, isn’t items interesting in an it? Imagine you have archaeological sense this couple, probably a is that they are from local king and queen, a time of transition in who probably had some Britain from the Iron wealth, as even back Age to the Roman perithen gold was only for od, and these items the wealthy, and the showed some of the Romans came so they mixed influences of the carefully hid their trea- time. sures because they’d Source: British Museum. heard that the Romans Another pause for a were big on robbing gold from those they subju- lighter moment. The Nose. gated. Then for what- Beddingham ever reason – prob- Found in 2009 by a ably they were killed metal detectorist in – they were unable to East Sussex. Dated retrieve them. At least to between around 45
15-1700 AD, so ancient treasure it ain’t. It’s made of bronze, rather interestingly. Thought by the finder to be maybe a Roman nose protector worn by soldiers under a helmet, but after a somewhat tortuous route between various experts it was declared to be a postmedieaval prosthetic nose that probably belonged to a gentleman of means who may have lost his original hooter to syphilis, which was rather common at the time among the middle classes.
Photo by Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England (The Winchester Hoard Uploaded Victuallers) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons