300BC sounds right but I'd have said central
Italy in line with most
cast bronzes.
This is a variant of the usual scallop shell shape bronzes (also made in lead) and Italo
Vecchi says
his view is that they are invariably
weights, a light ounce in most cases, as they always seem to come with something they can be suspended from, a hole for a hook or in this case a protrusion. My own example has an indent at the back it could be suspended from. The fact that the designs are similar to the early scallop shell sextantes probably only stems from the
weights being made from casting actual scallop shells and being in wide enough circulation about 300BC that when a coin design was sought for the
sextans in about 280BC, it seemed natural to use the same design for a coin of the same size. As
weights perhaps they were used to weigh
aes rude, if so they have a quasi monetary function. If my view is that the coin design was copied from these pieces then 300BC would be spot on as these pieces would need to have been around in some quantity when the first scallop shell
sextans was made about 280 BC.
