Casgliadau Arlein

Large sheet fragment of a round bottomed single-handled cup or ladle once with a rim diameter of approximately 100mm. Now crumpled, torn and in one place folded over upon itself. The sheet noticeably thickens towards the rim edge. At the centre of the base, there are two concentric circle impressions on the exterior surface, first traced on the X-ray, then later confirmed through cleaning. It is possible that this makes reference to omphalos based forms, common on small bronze cups of Late Halstatt date on the Continent, though in this case not acting as a functional base.
There appear to be no close parallels to this ladle or cup form in Britain. The best parallels appear to be with small single-handled cups with omphalos bases found in Halstatt C&D contexts on the Continent (see Kossack 1959; Zürn 1987).