Welsh Treasure Trove Reminds Us of the Memento Mori
Remember .
A recently uncovered trove of artifacts in Wales has been officially designated as a treasure, meaning that the collection of coins, rings, and other personal items which belonged to Welsh nobles from the 9th to the 17th must be given over to the staff at the National Museum of Wales. Among the horde was a gold finger ring from Carreghofa Community, Powys. Pictured above, the ring features a skull and is also engraved with the Latin phrase “memento mori.” It means “remember that you die.”
The ring is a perfect example of the larger memento mori type of art that we find throughout history. It’s art that reminds people of the inevitability of death, types of which we find all over history. Death is, after all, one experience that every human will eventually share, so of course depictions and reminders of it are near-universal.
Amateur Metal Detectorists Found This Completely Creepy Medieval Skull Ring in Wales Buried With a Cache of Rare Treasures
The treasure trove includes gold and silver coins, decorative objects, and jewelry that once belonged to upper-crust Welsh society.
Yikes!
A macabre gold ring with a creepy enamel skull was found along with a trove of medieval and post-medieval artifacts by amateur metal detectorists in Wales.
The treasures, which include a cache of Tudor coins emblazoned with Henry VIII’s portrait, likely belonged to elite members of Welsh society between the 9th and 17th centuries.
The creepy crawly ring, which is surrounded by a detailed quatrefoil, was discovered amid other objects in the eastern county of Powys and the Vale of Glamorgan, and reported to authorities in keeping with UK guidelines.
A Memento Mori gold ring engraved with a skull is one of nine stunning medieval and post-medieval objects found in Wales.
The ring, found in Carreghofa Community, Powys, would have been kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death. Memento Mori is a Latin term that literally means remember you must die .
Among the other priceless objects are three gold and silver coin hoards and the first Anglo-Saxon style double-hooked fastener to be identified in Wales.
All the nine finds were discovered by metal detectorists in Powys and Vale of Glamorgan and have been declared treasure by National Museum Wales.
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