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Description: | An incomplete late Roman copper alloy leaf-shaped strap end with both ends now missing, but likely to have had a bifurcated tip. It is 33.8mm long and 15.2mm at its widest point. The engraved ornament consists of large peacock and what is likely to represent the tree-of-life. The peacock stands in profile to the left and pecks the tree which has a cross-hatched trunk and four branches, three of which terminate in three fruits. The peacock has a ??crown?? of three crest feathers and its neck, body and tail are decorated with zig-zag, cross-hatched or oblique lines. On the tail feathers these lines lie either side of circular stamped motifs which represent the eye feathers. The body is also decorated with two circlet motifs. The legs are long and terminate in three toes. Below the tail and above the back is a line of crescentic punch marks. A border along the outer edge of the strap end and extending to the crest consists of crescentic motifs along a guide line.
Two strap ends similarly decorated with peacocks, were found at Wavendon Gate, Milton Keynes, Bucks (Mawer in Williams at al 1996, p116-120) and the buckle plate from East Challow, Oxfordshire and Harlow Temple, Essex are more stylised and cruder in style than the Hardwick example. The execution of the engraving on the Hardwick example suggest superior technical and artistic skills possessed by the craftsman responsible.
Mawer states that the symbolic mythological associations for the peacock were abundant. The bird's beauty made it a natural attribute of Venus and the eyes on its tail coupled with the star studded arc of the sky link it to Juno. The annual loss and regrowth of its tail is an appropriate symbol for spring and rebirth. For this reason it was used by early Christians as well as those depicting Bacchic and Orphic scenes. | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Moss, Jennifer | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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