Copper/copper alloy item

[nikopolis1]

What is this?Resembles me bull skin ingots from the bronze age but shape is little bit different.Could not find similar on Internet.Size 4.4 cm,10.72 grams weight

[SC]

Very similar sized and shaped items are "feet" or rests for bronze bowls from the Roman period.  One of the most common types is almost identical but has two small kidney-shaped eye-holes in it but solid ones exist too, so that is what I suspect yours may be.

SC

[nikopolis1]

Found almost exact match https://www.academia.edu/41058891/Objects_of_Exchange_A_Guide_to_Bronze_Age_and_Celtic_Proto_money
item number 18.

[SC]

You have to be very careful with that book.  It is a photo catalogue of someones collection with their opinions.  It is interesting, but frankly not well researched.  Very very few of the identifications are backed up by references to archaeological sources.  This is the difference in books by collectors and dealers that simply express opinions versus those that provide references to archaeological or academic works.

I am not trying to be critical.  The same holds true for our site - many times we are only expressing opinions too.

But in some cases items are well documented.

For example, the exact dish feet I was talking about are in that book as numbers 101-107.  The book states they have no other practical use.  In fact they are well know as Roman dish feet and many have been found attached to the Roman bronze dishes.  They are well described in Schleiermachen, M. "Die Romischen Fibeln von Kempten-Cambodunum" in Cambodunumforschungen V. (Kallmunz, 1993), which covers the metal finds from excavations at Kempten (ancient Cambudunum).

As for yours, and their equivalents in that book - maybe they are in fact porto-money like the book says or maybe they a variant of the feet shown in 101-107.  Uncertain without further references.

SC

[nikopolis1]

Ok thanks for the info