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Dubnovellaunos V-Sign. Trinovantes. c.5 BC-AD 10. Celtic silver unit. 13mm. 0.85g.
1/2
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Norwich, Norfolk
Description
Dubnovellaunos V-Sign. c.5 BC-AD 10. Silver unit. 13mm. 0.85g. Head right, phallic nose, three large crescents for hair, beaded border./ Annulate horse left, beaded mane, corded pole protruding from back, [D]VNO above, flower below. ABC 2398, VA 1663, BMC–, S–. VF/Good VF, lightly toned silver, neat horse, clear phallic nose, well ornamented reverse. VERY RARE only 18 others recorded.
Dubnovellaunos had a long-serving diecutter in Essex, with a simple, consistent graphic style, and whose literacy steadily develops over time, as he sounded out the king’s long name in the Roman alphabet whose phonetics never really suited the Celtic languages. We seldom see a silver unit’s lettering as clearly this (he got his N the right way round this time, writing backwards as he had to on the die), and we know from another example struck from this same die that at he was still spelling -vallaunos with an -A- in the local pronunciation. This dates it early in the king’s tenure in Essex; the scribe then switched to a standard Romano-Gaulish spelling with E [see Sills DK p. 588 for details]. Dubnovellaunos’ abundant silver units (this obverse die was worked until it split) match the simple style and format of his gold (ABC 2389), all of which stress his responsibility, as sacral king, for his people’s wellbeing and the fertility of their lands and livestock. This shows on the units as solar imagery on both dies in the form of a bright flower, and the three-branched sacred emblem above the mare made to suggest a flowering plant or someone saluting the Sun (cf. arrangement on the half unit, ABC 2401, where the mare even turns to face it). And then there is that enigmatic obverse. We see a realistic portrait on a bronze unit (ABC 2404, by which time our scribe was using the II form of E), and it seems Dubnovellaunos actually had rather a large nose. Are we to meant to picture the king himself in the face of that potent deity who made the meadows bloom in summer so that they could fill their ships with produce for export to Roman Gaul?
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Dubnovellaunos V-Sign. c.5 BC-AD 10. Silver unit. 13mm. 0.85g. Head right, phallic nose, three large crescents for hair, beaded border./ Annulate horse left, beaded mane, corded pole protruding from back, [D]VNO above, flower below. ABC 2398, VA 1663, BMC–, S–. VF/Good VF, lightly toned silver, neat horse, clear phallic nose, well ornamented reverse. VERY RARE only 18 others recorded.
Dubnovellaunos had a long-serving diecutter in Essex, with a simple, consistent graphic style, and whose literacy steadily develops over time, as he sounded out the king’s long name in the Roman alphabet whose phonetics never really suited the Celtic languages. We seldom see a silver unit’s lettering as clearly this (he got his N the right way round this time, writing backwards as he had to on the die), and we know from another example struck from this same die that at he was still spelling -vallaunos with an -A- in the local pronunciation. This dates it early in the king’s tenure in Essex; the scribe then switched to a standard Romano-Gaulish spelling with E [see Sills DK p. 588 for details]. Dubnovellaunos’ abundant silver units (this obverse die was worked until it split) match the simple style and format of his gold (ABC 2389), all of which stress his responsibility, as sacral king, for his people’s wellbeing and the fertility of their lands and livestock. This shows on the units as solar imagery on both dies in the form of a bright flower, and the three-branched sacred emblem above the mare made to suggest a flowering plant or someone saluting the Sun (cf. arrangement on the half unit, ABC 2401, where the mare even turns to face it). And then there is that enigmatic obverse. We see a realistic portrait on a bronze unit (ABC 2404, by which time our scribe was using the II form of E), and it seems Dubnovellaunos actually had rather a large nose. Are we to meant to picture the king himself in the face of that potent deity who made the meadows bloom in summer so that they could fill their ships with produce for export to Roman Gaul?
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