12-Year-Old Boy Stumbles on Ancient Roman Bracelet While Walking His Dog

The rare golden bracelet was probably given to a soldier as a reward for bravery as Roman armies invaded England.

By Nick Keppler |
Three views of the gold Roman-era bracelet discovered in a West Sussex field.
Three views of the gold Roman-era bracelet discovered in a West Sussex field. / Portable Antiquities Scheme // CC BY 2.0

A 12-year-old boy out walking his dog in an English seaside village found an object that museum curators have determined to be a Roman military bracelet from the 1st century CE.  

In 2022, Rowan Brannan, accompanied by his mother, spotted the golden bracelet in a field in Pagham, West Sussex. The family took it to a local officer of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, an organization in the UK managed by the British Museum, which analyzes archaeologically significant items that its citizens stumble across. (The UK has been inhabited continuously since the Stone Age, and it’s not unusual for people to happen upon ancient hoards, medieval chess pieces, and other buried treasures.) 

The golden bracelet is likely a “battle honor,” awarded to a soldier for bravery, according to the Novium Museum in Chichester, whose experts added that such emblems were rare in Roman Britain. The museum will put the bracelet on display starting September 10. 

The find “will help shed light on military attitudes, including how Roman soldiers were rewarded for their bravery, gallantry, and service, particularly with regards to the Roman invasion of Britain,” Chichester District Council leader Adrian Moss said in a statement.

Many in the Roman Empire viewed the island to the north with fear and curiosity, believing it was full of Druids and dangerous tribes. After a few military incursions and a weird incident in which Roman emperor Caligula raised an army to collect seashells symbolizing his victory over the sea (or something), Rome launched a full-scale invasion of Britain in 43 CE. Its armies pushed northward to the present-day Scottish border, defeating and subjugating native peoples. Within 40 years, the Roman Empire controlled all the land south of the Scottish Highlands and remained an occupying force until 410 CE, creating a distinct Romano-British culture.

The Novium Museum has a collection of artifacts from this time period found in the vicinity, including ceramics from a Roman cemetery, a sandstone carving of the Roman god Jupiter, and a mosaic from a villa—which was discovered by a farmer plowing a field.

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