Old Oslo

DURING an excavation outside the NW. corner of the defences of Winchester, Hants., an object was discovered which careful conservation proved to be an early medieval burse-reliquary. It has a wooden core, to which are tacked thin, gilt copper-alloy metal sheets, with embossed decoration. The context of the reliquary suggests its loss in the late 9th or early 10th century, and its art-historical associations indicate that it had been made at some time in the previous hundred years. It is the first early medieval reliquary of this type to have been found in England.