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Description: | Middle Saxon/Late Saxon cast copper alloy cruciform harness mount. The four equally sized arms are decorated with moulded acanthus-derived ornament, small drilled blind holes and with four flat bar-mounts, each secured by two rivets. The bossed centre is surmounted by an X-shaped mount held in place by a dome-headed rivet in the centre and a smaller rivet at the end of each arm.
The original appearance of the reverse is unknown because the surface is obscured by corrosion products, but it can be seen that the arms are concave though flat at the ends. Of two opposed arms covered with ferrous material, one is pierced by a single hole, the other by two. These can be seen on an X-ray, but are visible only on the front of the object itself, as small patches of rust. A projection from the rear near the end of the doubly pierced arm can be seen on an X-ray as a lug with a transverse perforation. On the opposing arm there is only the scar of what was probably a matching lug. The reverse of the other two arms is corrosion covered. Near the end of both there is a projection, the larger one visible on the same X-ray as another lug with a transverse perforation. The smaller projection appears to be the stub of a similar lug. In the centre of the reverse, on which there is ferrous material, a copper alloy bar aligned with the ferrous covered arms is just visible to the naked eye, more so on the X-ray.
52 x 51mm. Thickness (excluding rear projections and deposits) 14mm. The iron coloured pierced lug extends 4.5mm from the reverse, the copper coloured lug 7mm.
The cruciform shape can be compared with those of 9th-century strap distributors from Southampton (see letter and photo from Barry Ager in secondary file 50106) and West Rudham (HER 32133), but the fixings on the back of this piece are inappropriate for a distributor in both their size and their form. It is much more likely to have been a mount fixed over the crossing point of two straps. The iron fixings may well be repairs.
The findspot is just outside the line of Thetford??s town defences that were constructed in c.900 AD. | Subjects: | Carolingian | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Bales, Ellen - Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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