Thin bronze, shallow bowls found in Anglo-Saxon graves up until the 7th century, hanging bowls are an important part of a Celtic metal-working tradition which has its origins in the Roman and pre-Roman Iron Age. They have three equally spaced suspension rings, fixed to the bowl by means of escutcheons which are usually decorated in a very distinctive way with coloured enamel and millefiori, invariably in (Celtic) trumpet and volute patterns rather than Germanic zoomorphic interlace. It seems likely that the bowls were actually suspended by means of tripods, but their exact function is not known.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied