Casgliadau Arlein

Wrought sheet copper alloy cauldron fragment including rim and shoulder, folded during collection (Fox 1947a, 87) and consequently flattened and creased with tears and folds. The shoulder is 67mm below the rim (following the curve) and is therefore from a different vessel to that represented by No.24 (contra Fox 1947a, 42, 87-8). The rim is roughly cut; c.9-10mm below it on the inside and c.10-12mm on the outside are uneven polished lines (c.1-2mm wide) which run parallel with the rim and mark where a reinforcing rim was set. Traces of iron corrosion remain on both the internal and external sides of the rim suggesting that the reinforcing band was made from iron. The external side is blackened apart from the area above the polished line below the rim which has a lighter mottled character similar to that of the internal surface. This blackening is an oxidisation phenomenon presumably due to use. A U-shaped patch of differential corrosion below the rim (width c.55mm, depth c.45mm) marks the location of a lost escutcheon which was fixed to the vessel through a recessed rivet hole (diameter c.3mm) set just below the rim. A rivet fixing two square washers (dimensions 5-6mm) to the cauldron fragment is set in one corner, presumably it was part of the secondary repair of a hole. Part of the fragment's edge has been deliberately cut in antiquity.