An extremely rare Bronze mirror, dating from the Iron Age and discovered near Didcot, is due to be exported in September unless the Friends of the Oxfordshire Museum, in partnership with the Museums Service, can raise the £33,000 needed to keep it in the UK.
The Mirror is a highly significant object, to both local and national archaeology.
Oxfordshire has many Iron Age sites such as Badbury Rings, Uffington Castle and the newly excavated Great Western Park site in Didcot, which are often under-represented in museum collections. This item is a fine example of a Late Iron Age decorated mirror.
The Mirror is made of copper-alloy, and consists of two elements – a plate with elegant curvilinear ornament on the back, and a cast openwork handle. It is in very good condition and its complex and beautiful decoration is an unusual and innovative example of Celtic ‘mirror-style’ art’.
Discovered by a metal detectorist in the Didcot area prior to 2007, it is a rarity –these mirrors are unique to Britain and there are only 18 complete and decorated mirrors known from the later Iron Age (300 BC – AD 50).
Mirrors from southern England, like this specimen are highly significant for our understanding of the later Iron Age, and offer important insights into the social changes which occurred in the century before the Roman conquest in AD 43. They are potentially objects of high status, and their manufacture and usage, alongside toilet implements such as tweezers and grinders for cosmetics, demonstrate the importance of personal appearance as a means of social expression during the later Iron Age.
This one is of an early type, dating to the first century BC, and is decorated with a highly unusual and beautiful curvilinear, La Tène style pattern which has been inscribed into the back by a craftsman who must have been extraordinarily skilled. This Mirror is a nationally important archaeological artefact, as well as an outstanding work of art and piece of craftsmanship. Its acquisition by Oxfordshire Museum Service for the people of Oxfordshire and the nation will help us properly reflect the incredible archaeological heritage we enjoy in this county, and be a spectacular and important exhibit for the Oxfordshire Museum.
Thanks, Carol Anderson – Director of The Oxfordshire Museum
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