Casgliadau Arlein

Small CuA cast handle-strap fragment from a ring-handled bowl. The loop has a central rounded rib flanked on either side by a concave slope. These reverse at the margins, to give raised and rounded flanges, thus giving an overall three-ribbed effect. The underside of the loop is flat. The loop has now 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 but eroded upper edge. Both side projections have been broken and eroded, though one side more severely than the other. In side view, the handle-plate is slightly curved however there is insufficient evidence to suggest the external diameter of the vessel. There is a single central rivet hole, slightly offset from the central rib of the loop. It contains the remains of a rivet, with circular shank. A fragmentary lump on the upper surface probably represents the remains of the rivet head, which appears to have been flat-headed. There is a distinctive black patination over much of the inner and outer surfaces of this strap. This small handle-strap was riveted, probably onto the exterior side of a globular bowl. The construction of the handle-strap is unlike those on any of the Atlantic Class A&B cauldrons and the bucket forms of the later Bronze Age in Britian and Ireland. 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 instead. The most likely interpretation, is that this belonged to a handled bowl of Early Iron Age date (750-500BC).