Technical Observations: The outer surface of 1895.241.A preserves thick, hard lumps of tan and white burial accretions. The patina is green and brown, and in a few areas, the shiny metal surface shows through. The inner surface is much smoother, with a finer, lighter green corrosion layer interrupted by splotches of a darker, sparkling brown corrosion. The outer surface of 1895.241.B is coated almost entirely with a compact, mottled green and tan layer with a few small areas of darker cupritic reddish brown. Near the outer edge on one side, the bare shiny metal is exposed. The inner surface is more heavily encrusted with green, grayish-blue, brown, and tan materials. Some of these have formed into a striated, fibrous texture that is probably a pseudomorph of an organic material whose fibers are slightly out of alignment, which would suggest something like papyrus rather than wood. Much of the metal surfaces of both pieces is concealed by corrosion and burial accretions. Most of the pieces assembled under 1895.241 have at least a few small crystalline black growths of copper sulfide that result from post-excavation storage conditions.
1895.241.A and 1895.241.B were cast by the lost wax process. It is not clear whether the circular moldings and raised ridges that decorate them were already present in the wax and enhanced in the metal, or if they were cut directly into the metal using a caliper-like tool that left a pin-sized hole in the center of each piece. The crisp outlines are evidence that the features were worked in the metal. The guilloche pattern on the outside of 1895.241.A was probably already present in the wax stage. The rim has a cut-out step (c. 37 x 2 mm), which probably accommodated a hinge. No evidence of an attachment remains.
Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2012)
