AN ANCIENT ring that has lain undiscovered for 3,000 years is going on show in Hampshire.
The late Bronze Age object, possibly a nose ring, was found at a metal detectorist rally by Neville Saunder at Crawley near Winchester about two years ago.
He reported it to the Finds Liaison Officer for Hampshire who was attending the rally to record discoveries for the Portable Antiquities Scheme database.
The object was identified as a gold penannular ring, a piece of jewellery dating back to the Late Bronze Age, about 1150-750BC.
Its function remains a mystery, but it is likely that penannular rings were a kind of high status jewellery.
Robin Iles, of the museums service, said: "Wearing this object may have been quite painful, but there are similarities to nose-rings from ancient Central and South America, and the idea of our Bronze Age ancestors with rings through their noses is less strange when we compare it to the current fad for body-piercing.
"Whatever its function, this strikingly beautiful object is evidence that metalworkers were highly skilled in using precious metals during the Bronze Age".
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