Text, The Snettisham Jeweller's Hoard

THE SNETTISHAM JEWELLER'S HOARD. This hoard, found during building work at Snettisham, Norfolk, in 1985, represents part of the stock of a jeweler working in the area in the second century AD. Though it has no direct connection with the great Iron Age Snettisham hoards, it may be evidence of a long tradition of gold- and silver-working in the area. The jeweler's products included silver gem-set rings, snake-rings and bracelets, and necklaces with wheel- and dome-shaped clasps and pendant crescents, all standard Roman jewelry types of the period. The 110 engraved carnelian gems, intended for mounting in rings, may have been made by gem engravers in the jeweler's workshop or have been bought from independent craftsmen. Scrap silver, ingots, a few pieces of scrap gold, and a quartz burnishing tool all indicate manufacturing. The coins establish the date of burial of the hoard at around AD 154 or later; they include high-purity silver denarii which were already some 70 years old, and were