Journal 22.
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In 1990 large-scale excavations took place alongside Fosse Lane, Shepton Mallet, in advance of commercial development. Peter Leach directed the work on behalf of Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit. These and subsequent excavations revealed a previously unknown small Romano-British town running along both sides of the Fosse Way at this point.

Towards the southern end of the 1990 Fosse Lane excavations was a small cemetery of 16 burials within a ditched enclosure. The burials lay in rock-cut graves. Grave HB22, near the middle of the cemetery, contained a well-preserved adult male of 30-50 years. He lay on his back inside a wooden coffin around which were vertically set packing stones. Like the other 15 burials he was oriented east-west. A silver amulet was discovered on the floor of the grave on the inside of the right femur close to the pelvis. It lay on edge with one of the cross

The amulet consists of a silver disc with four projecting arms forming a cross. The shaft, arms and top are formed from double silver beads. The beads forming the shaft and arms are pinned on to the disc while those at the top, which served as the suspension loop, are soldered on. On the disc is a Chi-Rho monogram evenly executed by punching. The overall height of the amulet is 45mm.

The discovery of a new early Christian object attracted considerable publicity. However, from the outset there were those who doubted the amulet\u2019s authenticity on both stylistic and metallurgical grounds. The amulet underwent surface XRF [X-ray fluorescence] analysis at the British Museum shortly after its discovery. The result was anomalous; it did not closely conform with the available database of analyses of Roman silver. The questionable nature of the

Questions about the amulet\u2019s authenticity became public in 1997 and the media has periodically picked up on the matter since then. An opportunity for a quantitative analysis of the amulet arose recently providing the possibility of establishing whether the object is ancient or modern. As part of his programme of research Dr Matthew Ponting of the University of Liverpool has sampled and analysed hundreds of Roman silver denarii using ICP-AES [Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy]. These analyses, together with the work of others, provides a very large comparative database for Roman silver. Dr Ponting agreed to apply his expertise to the investigation of the amulet. Two samples were taken, one from the central disc and the other from one of the pins attaching a bead to the disc. The samples were taken by drilling into the metal with a 0.6mm diameter