Philobiblon

Archaeologists getting along with metal detectorists – the new treasure law and the portable antiquities scheme, whose blog you’ll find among my regular reading, really have worked out. (As well to point out the success stories in the news occasionally…)

A beautiful little bronze dog, dating from the 4th century and still shiny from years of being stroked, was found by Alan Rowe, a children’s books illustrator, who relaxes by taking his metal detector out into the fields near his home on the Isle of Wight.
The dog is valued at about £500. But it tells Frank Basford, an archaeologist who records finds on the island, that a superstitious Roman – with good reason, as the empire started to crumble around him – crossed that field, carrying an amulet probably bought at a shrine to the god Nodens, where the faithful believed the lick of temple dogs would cure their ailments and protect them. The field was surveyed but no evidence was found of a shrine or building: the dog probably just fell out of a pocket with a hole.

Did Roman clothes really have pockets, BTW? I thought they didn’t – but I think we can attribute that one to the reporter.