#frontinus.

AN ANCIENT crucible used for smelting precious metals has been found on a construction site in Monmouth.

The bowl, made from hard clay, measures less than five centimetres across but local archaeologists believe it could be more than half-filled with gold.

"Apparently, it's a unique discovery," Stephen Clarke, of the Monmouth Archaeological Society. said. "A lot of crucibles have been found [in the UK] but not with silver or gold in an amount like this."