A pair of inscribed Anglo-Saxon hooked tags from the Rome (Forum) 1883 hoard

Abstract

The importance of the hoard found in the excavations in the Forum at Rome in 1883, just outside the the House of the Vestal Virgins, has long been recognized by Anglo-Saxon numismatists, for it is the largest recorded source for the coinage of Æthelstan and Edmund. Archaeologists, art-historians and epigraphers have, however, failed to appreciate the significance for Anglo-Saxon studies of the pair of silver tags found with the coins (pl. VIII), bearing between them the name of Pope Marinus, despite their having been illustrated (in uncleaned condition) by Christopher Blunt in his 1974 account of the hoard. The tags themselves are described and discussed here by Dr James Graham-Campbell and their inscriptions by Dr Elisabeth Okasha, both working from photographs kindly made available to us by Dottoressa Silvana Balbi de Caro, of the Museo Nazionale in Rome, through the agency of Dr Michael Metcalf.