In the Columbaris region, in the farm of the canon Mastino, they found a bronze mirror inside a fragmentary cork case (figs. 1-2), then donated to the Archaeological Museum G. A. Sanna of Sassari where it is still displayed.

Fig. 1 - Cork case and bronze mirror (photo by P. DESSÌ - RA_00008015-00162070/R.A.S.).

Fig. 2 - Cork case and bronze mirror (photo by P. DESSÌ - RA_00008015-00162070/R.A.S.).

The item is a bronze disc  with a reflecting concave face, with no decoration (fig. 3), used from Etruscan times.

Fig. 3 - Bronze mirror (photo by P. DESSÌ- RA_00008015-00162070/R.A.S.).

The upper part of the case must have been sliding, through bronze hinges fixed to the sides and thin nails in the upper margin (fig. 4). The cover fragments show the decoration made with a thin silver thread inserted in the engraved cork.

Fig. 4 - Cork cover with decoration (photo by P. DESSÌ- RA_00008015-00162070/R.A.S.).

The image presented is an amphora inserted in an architectural structure where the lintel rests on columns, with Corinthian or composite capitals (fig. 5).

Fig. 5 - Drawing of the decoration on the cork case (from MARTORELLI 2005, p. 29, fig. 3).

The pattern has been known in other object types like slabs especially for funerary needs, but it also appears sporadically in common uses. The assumption is that the portrayal does not refer to a real life moment, but it is symbolic. The shape of the amphora seems to propose the union of elements borrowed from transport containers circulating in the western Mediterranean especially between the IV and VI century A.D. (see fig. 6).

Fig. 6 - Late Roman Amphora 3 (from http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/amphora_ahrb_2005/drawings.cfm?id=240).

The item possibly comes from a tomb context as both the mirror and the amphora have a symbolic role in the funerary sphere: the former reflects the image of life even after death, while the amphora could represent the body as a container of the soul. The mirror and case could have been produced by local craftsmen even though the pattern engraved on the cover reveals an inspiration to Byzantine or Ravvenate cultural models, which spread in Sardinia around the VI-VII century A.D.