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HID IN THE EARTH AND SECRET PLACES: A REASSESSMENT OF A HOARD OF LATER MEDIEVAL GOLD RINGS AND SILVER COINS FOUND NEAR THE RIVER THAME

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2016

Eleanor R Standley
Eleanor R Standley*
Affiliation:
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH, UK. Email: eleanor.standley@arch.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper presents a new assessment of the hoard of five gold finger rings and ten silver groats found together near the River Thame, in Oxfordshire, in 1940. It proposes a refined date of manufacture for the exquisite reliquary ring and reports newly identified elements of its design, suggesting that it held a second relic. A holistic understanding of the landscape, topography, contemporary institutions, places and events is used to interpret the hoarded material. It is advocated that the hoarded rings and coins were probably the property of Notley Abbey, not Thame Abbey as has been thought, and that they were rescued from Thomas Cromwell’s Commissioners in 1538 for burial at a place of cultural significance. The paper also draws attention to some of the problems of interpreting and dating hoards and it emphasises the continuity of hoarding practice from prehistory into the later- and post-medieval periods.

Type
Papers
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 96 , September 2016 , pp. 117 - 142
Copyright
© The Society of Antiquaries of London 2016 

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