South Shields, cameo

HER Number

16747

District

Newcastle

Site Name

South Shields, cameo

Place

South Shields

Map Sheet

NZ36NE

Class

Monument <By Form>

Site Type: Broad

Findspot

Site Type: Specific

Cameo

General Period

ROMAN

Specific Period

Roman 43 to 410

Form of Evidence

Find

Description

Length 4.7 cm. Of Indian sardonyx, in which an opaque white stratum has been carved to depict a bear, with the head of a ?goat between its forepaws, against a mottled translucent stratum of a greenish brown colour. There is no precise record of the findspot or of the circumstances of the discovery. This is the finest known cameo from Roman Britain. Its nature and condition suggest that it came from a burial. Great North Museum: Hancock 1923.52

Easting

436000

Northing

567000

Grid Reference

NZ436000567000

Sources

DJ Smith, 1974, Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle upon Tyne - An Illustrated Introduction, 41; The Archaeological Journal XXV (1868), pp 103-7; Archaeologia Aeliana, Series Four, Vol XXXIX (1961), pp 19-20, 34, plate viii; J.M.C. Toynbee, 1963, Art in Roman Britain (second edition) no. 139, pl 158; ABUR 372