Casgliadau Arlein

1CuA thick vessel sheet fragment with four rivets and one partial rivet hole arranged in an arc at the edge of a curved sheet fragment. One of the rivets is circular headed with a slightly flattened top, whilst two have lost their heads. The fourth rivet head is either masked by or comprises an irregular shaped drip of bronze or solder. All rivets have circular shanks. None of the original sheet edge survives, whilst the sheet fragment has little curvature. The remains of an attached sheet has survived on the exterior side (rivet head side), in two localised places beneath the complete rivet and the rivet masked by a drip of bronze. The survival of the remains of attached sheet on the exterior side of this base is informative. It either suggests that this fragment was a base sheet repair from an Atlantic cauldron of multi-sheet construction, rather than an original base sheet. Alternatively, this method of construction is more typical of Type Walthamstow/La Tene, Variant Spettisbury and Baldock cauldrons of the Late Iron Age, which are made of multiple sheets of bronze, the base beneath the tier sheets. Therefore, this fragment cannot be considered entirely diagnostic on its own.