Ringlemere Cup
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The Ringlemere Gold Cup is a Bronze Age vessel found in the Ringlemere barrow in 2001 by a metal detectorist. Although badly crushed by plough damage it can be seen to be 14cm high with corrugated sides. The cup resembles a late Neolithic (approximately 2300BC) ceramic beaker with corded decoration but dates to a much later period. Only five similar cups have been found in Europe, dating to the period between 1700 and 1500 BC. It is similar to the Rillaton gold cup found in Cornwall in the nineteenth century.
It is thought that the cup was not a grave good however but a votive offering placed at the centre of the barrow independent of any inhumation in approximately 1700 - 1500BC. No contemporary burials have in fact been found at the site although later Iron Age ones have since been found along with a Saxon cemetery.
The finder, Cliff Bradshaw, reported the find of the cup to the local coroner's office and through the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Treasure Act 1996 the cup was recorded and declared to be Treasure Trove in 2002. It was bought by the British Museum for the amount of £45,000 (roughly $86,000 USD), with the money paid split between Mr. Bradshaw and the Smith family who own Ringlemere Farm. The money to secure the cup for the nation was raised through donations by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Art Collections Fund and the British Museum Friends. This also enabled the site to be properly excavated, revealing a previously unsuspected funerary complex of Early Bronze Age date (approximately 2300 BC) on the site
Until 17th October 2006, the cup was on temporary display in Room 2 of the British Museum, with the Rillaton cup, but from 17th October it is on temporary display in Dover Museum, closer to its find-spot.
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The extract below is from the web site of the Department of Culture Media and Sport and list the price paid for the cup to be £270,000 which is supported by the report in The Guardian Unlimited which quotes an estimate of the value as being £250,000 • an early Bronze Age gold cup one of only two found in Britain and worth £270,000. The cup was found by a metal detectorist at Ringlemere, Sandwich in Kent, in November 2001. After further excavations at the Ringlemere site it is becoming clear that this was a place of early Bronze Age funerary and ceremonial activity. The cup has been acquired by the British Museum http://www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Press_notices/archive_2003/dcms117_2003.htm http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2011880,00.html
