Hanging bowls are a distinctive type of artefact of the period between the end of Roman rule in Britain in c. 410 AD and the emergence of the Christian Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the 7th century, continuing rather later. The surviving examples have mostly been found in Anglo-Saxon graves, but there is general agreement that they reflect Celtic traditions of decoration, albeit sometimes combined with Anglo-Saxon influences.[1]
The bowls are usually of thin beaten bronze, between 15–30 cm (6-12 inches) in diameter, and dished or cauldron-shaped in profile. Typically they have three decorated plates ('escutcheons') applied externally just below the rim to support hooks with rings, by which they were suspended. The ornament of these plates is often very sophisticated, and in many cases includes beautiful coloured enamel work, commonly in champlevé and using spiral motifs. Although their designs and manufacture are thought to proceed from Celtic technique, they are principally found in eastern Britain, and especially in the areas which received Anglo-Saxon acculturation which employed grave goods in burial practices in contrast to Christian practice. Their production is also evidenced in Pictish and Irish contexts, but they seem almost completely absent from the Brittonic areas of Wales, Devon and Cornwall.
Three were found in the famous Sutton Hoo ship-burial, as well as one in another mound at the site. Rupert Bruce-Mitford's corpus gives the following breakdown of the locations in modern terms of the 174 finds he includes (many are just one or more elements of a bowl):[2]
- England 117, Scotland 7, Ireland 17
- Norway 26, Sweden 2, Denmark 1,
- Germany 2, Belgium 1, Netherlands 1
- ^ Webster, Leslie (2012). Anglo-Saxon Art: A New History. London: The British Museum Press. p. 101-102. ISBN 978-0-7141-2809-2.
- ^ Table 2, p. 64