2nd century AD. A funerary container group comprising: a squat bronze jug with flared rim, remains of attachment of a ferrous handle; within the jug, a small burnished ceramic jar with narrow foot, ribbed neck; beneath the jar, an iron nail. 616 grams total, 8-14cm (3 - 5 1/2"). Ex Lincolnshire collection; found at Beechamwell, Norfolk, UK, 2011. See Alfayé Villa, S. Nails for the Dead: A Polysemic Account of Ancient Funerary Practice, in Magical Practice in the Latin West. Papers from the International Conference Held at the University of Zaragoza 30 Sept - 1 Oct 2005, Leiden, 2010. The Greek (and later, Roman) practice of placing an iron nail in a funerary deposit has been discussed at some length in the scholarly literature. The nails are associated mainly with single cremations. They have been interpreted as talismans designed to protect the dead from the dangers of the journey to the Underworld. More recently, opinion has come to include the notion of the nail as a symbolic 'fixing point', a means of ensuring that the dead person could not return to the world of the living. Both ideas constitute a form of protective magic. [2]

Fine condition; bronze vessel dented at base.