popgabriel
Tenderfoot
- Jun 26, 2018
- 6
- 7
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I found this ring while working in my vegetable garden, at about two feet in the ground. I have trouble clarifying its origin and age. Important to note: I don't live in the UK, I'm from North-Western Romania, in Bihor county, and my village is called Petreu. I live nearby both the place where my village had a watermill from medieval times until the 19th century and where the counts that possessed it had their residence. There was a mansion built in 1802 and destroyed around the 1930's. Before, in the same place, there was a wooden mansion for the lords.
I know here lived a lot of different peoples as times passed by. At first, there were two bronze age cultures, Otomani and Cotofeni, in about 3000-1600 BC, and after that celts, scythians, dacians (the border with the Roman Empire was only 80 km away in 106-275 AD), huns, goths, gepids, avars, slavs, romanians and hungarians. The latter ruled over the region for much of the middle ages, until 1918, after WW1, when it became a part of Romania.
My current best theory is that it was made around the 17th century based on rings with similar style elements I found online and was lost or hidden when the village was sacked by the turks and afterwards abandoned under ottoman rule (it is mentioned as such in 1692), until around the year 1700 when it was repopulated.
About the ring itself: I tested it and contains low amounts of silver, maybe alloyed with copper or bronze. It weights 3.75 grams and the diameter of the circle is 2 cm. It has inscriptions on the bezel, of unknown nature. I doesn't seem to be something aesthetic, so maybe it is something heraldic? My best hypothesis so far is that the lower half, that one containing lines and dots is meant to represent a river, as I've seen on an ancient roman ring I found while searching something similar.
After getting the idea of a possible asian origin, I looked for ottoman rings and have founds some similarities in ornamental motifs and engraving technique but not in the shape as a whole. The writing may be stylized arabic or persian script, as I have found some similar looking writing on other ottoman rings.
Any help or opinions are welcome. If you can recommend someone that might know better or a place where I can find answers, please let me know.
I know here lived a lot of different peoples as times passed by. At first, there were two bronze age cultures, Otomani and Cotofeni, in about 3000-1600 BC, and after that celts, scythians, dacians (the border with the Roman Empire was only 80 km away in 106-275 AD), huns, goths, gepids, avars, slavs, romanians and hungarians. The latter ruled over the region for much of the middle ages, until 1918, after WW1, when it became a part of Romania.
My current best theory is that it was made around the 17th century based on rings with similar style elements I found online and was lost or hidden when the village was sacked by the turks and afterwards abandoned under ottoman rule (it is mentioned as such in 1692), until around the year 1700 when it was repopulated.
About the ring itself: I tested it and contains low amounts of silver, maybe alloyed with copper or bronze. It weights 3.75 grams and the diameter of the circle is 2 cm. It has inscriptions on the bezel, of unknown nature. I doesn't seem to be something aesthetic, so maybe it is something heraldic? My best hypothesis so far is that the lower half, that one containing lines and dots is meant to represent a river, as I've seen on an ancient roman ring I found while searching something similar.
After getting the idea of a possible asian origin, I looked for ottoman rings and have founds some similarities in ornamental motifs and engraving technique but not in the shape as a whole. The writing may be stylized arabic or persian script, as I have found some similar looking writing on other ottoman rings.
Any help or opinions are welcome. If you can recommend someone that might know better or a place where I can find answers, please let me know.
