Casgliadau Arlein

Small CuA handle-strap fragment (now in 2 fragments with a recent break) from a handled bowl. The loop has a central rounded rib flanked on either side by a concave slope. These reverse at the margins, to give slightly raised and rounded flanges, thus overall giving a three-ribbed effect. The loop has broken across the mid-top section, its slender and thin form lending itself to a handled, vertical-sided bowl rather than a cauldron. The surviving handle-plate has a flat upper edge, though with a slight flat edged projection probably representing a runner stub created during casting. It seems unlikely that this could be a broken arm of the handle-strap, since it is offset to one side of the loop. The plate has been bent out of shape, therefore the diameter of the bowl cannot be estimated. The handle-plate has one complete arm with a rounded end and fixed by a circular sectioned bronze rivet. The terminal and rivet have broken off the main piece during or after recovery, the rivet had now missing. The opposite arm of the plate has broken, therefore removing evidence of the second rivet hole. This very small handle-strap was riveted, probably onto the exterior side of a globular bowl, though subsequent bending of the plate has removed any tell-tale evidence of its curvature. The construction of this handle-strap is unlike those on any of the Atlantic A&B cauldrons and buckets of the later Bronze Age in Britain and Ireland, whilst its casting in bronze rules out it being part of a cauldron belonging to the Late Iron Age or Romano-British period, when iron was used insead. In this regard, it seems technologically to span the gap between these two periods. Though less diagnostic than other handle-straps from Llanmaes, the most likely interpretation, is that this belonged to a handled bowl of Early Iron Age date (750-500BC).