#FindsFriday – Crotal Bell

Happy #FindsFriday everybody. Today we’re going to look at a find from our excavations at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester.

This is a post-medieval crotal bell – a small bell which could have been worn on the collar of a domestic animal (such as cow, goat and sheep), on horse equipment and even on clothing. It was found associated with a post-medieval trackway and could suggest that the track was used for moving livestock around agricultural land

It is decorated with a sunburst design and includes the maker’s mark of a bell-founder’s hammer in a shield.