View Full-Size Image
A detail of the central jewelled gold body chain of the Hoxne Hoard, Suffolk, 4th-5th century.
The British Museum, London.
Discovered in Suffolk, in the east of England in 1992 CE, the incredible collection contains 14,865 late-4th and early-5th century CE Roman gold, silver and bronze coins, and 200 items of silver tableware and gold jewellery. The hoard amounts to a total of 7.7lb of gold and 52.4 lb of silver. The central stone of this body chain is amethyst and it is surrounded by garnets. The empty settings once probably held pearls which have since decayed.