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Description: | A copper alloy decorative fragment of a bridle cheek piece, in the shape of a Ringerike style animal head and neck in profile. It is broken at the neck of the animal, which curves upwards into the head. The neck is decorated with two parallel longditudinal grooves near to its edge. The head points downwards, it has a crest of three points and a long upcurved snout also ending in three points. The crest is decorated with two vertical grooves and a zig-zag groove above them, the eye may be represented by a rectangular groove and the snout has three further longditudinal grooves. The length of the head is 40mm and its width 16mm, the surviving part of the neck is 15mm in length and 12.5mm wide. A very similar fragment has been found from Stoke Holy Cross, and at Culpho, Suffolk. On the basis of a complete cheekpiece from Angsby, Uppland, Sweden this animal head would have projected on one side of the cheekpiece with a corresponding head on the other side. Where the necks join there is a pierced hole, through which the bridle would be secured, it is Viking in date (Margeson 1997, 34-36, fig 40). | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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