Part of a rosary, consisting of 17 disc-shaped ivory or bone beads on a narrow velvet ribbon. From Hyde Abbey, Winchester, Hampshire.

Rosary

Medieval, 13th-15th century

Found at the site of Hyde Abbey, Winchester, Hampshire

Part of a rosary, consisting of seventeen bone or ivory beads. Rosaries are strings of 55 or 165 beads used chiefly by Roman Catholics to count the prayers they are reciting. An interesting item to be discovered on a former religious site.