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Description: | A cast copper-alloy button and loop fastener. The head is complete and the shank or loop incomplete, due to an old break. The head is flat and rectangular in shape, measuring 18.55mm width and 16.60mm in height. The front face of the head is decorated with a pair of transverse grooves, below which there are two parallel transverse rows of three indented triangles, the points of which meet. Below these there is a continual horizontal U-shaped pattern and finally another transverse groove. It is likely that the triangular indentations especially were originally inset with enamel, traces of which can still be seen. The shaft or loop projects from the centre of the back face of the rectangular head of this fastener, it is bent at an angle of 90 degrees so as to lie roughly parallel to the head but remains slightly offset. At the point where the shaft starts to split into two arms, which would have created a triangular shaped loop, there is an old break and the upper part of this shaft/loop is missing. This button and loop fastener is very similar to Wilds type VIa, which have flat rectangular enamelled heads, the designs of the parallels are composed of squares and triangles, as is this example, and they are believed to be Roman and date to the second century. (Wild 1970, 137-142, fig 2 ). These fasteners are believed to have been used to hold together two pieces of fabric, or leather. The loop/shank was sown to the fabric base and the head was probably inserted through a slit or loop in another section of fabric. The number of button and loop fasteners found on military sites implies that they were items of military equipment (Wild 1970, 145-146). | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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