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Description: | Cast copper alloy button and loop fastener of late Iron Age or early Roman date (50 BC - 250 AD). The head of the button and loop fastener is oval in plan with a sub-rectangular (rectangular with rounded corners) cross section. The edges of the button head are slightly beveled. It measures 20.4mm in length, 17.2mm wide and is 4.3mm thick. The integral cast shank (loop) is attached toward one end of the rear of the button (head) and offset at approximately 75 degrees to the plain of the head. It is sub-rectangular in plan, and oval in cross section. The shank is broken before it expands to form the loop. The shank is 8.4mm long, 4.8mm wide and 4mm thick. The button and loop fastener weighs 4.41 grams.
The front head of the button is decorated with a series of cast concentric rings the spaces between these rings contained enamel. It is likely that the overall design form would have looked like a stylised representation of an eye. The inner circle contains the remains of red enamel whilst the next concentric ring has lost all of its coloured enamel. However under magnification traces of a glass-like inlaid surface can be seen, this may have originally been blue in colour. The final ring is much wider and does not seem to have contained enamel at all. The outer most ring is formed from a band that runs around the outside face of the head and this is a pointed oval (eye?) shape. The reverse of the head is plain and undecorated as are the remains of the loop.
The whole of the button and loop fastener is a dark brownish green colour with a heavy well formed polished patina. There are, however, a number of areas where this patina has been lost through abrasion. These are mostly located on the external edges of the fastener and are likely to be caused by abrasion in the buried environment. This abrasion is the most likely cause for the loss of the loop, the break of which is relatively modern. In the areas where abrasion has caused the most damage a light green copper corrosion has developed.
This example would probably fit best into Class III of J.P. Wild??s classification of button and loop fasteners in the Roman Provinces (1970). This class (III) consists of fasteners teardrop or petal-headed fasteners that sometimes bear enameled decoration. Wild dates these fasteners to the very late first and second century AD (80-200 AD) but due to the age of the classification this date range may need to be refined or extended. Thus a larger date bracket of the later Iron Age to Early Roman period (50BC ?? 250 AD) has been suggested here. | Subjects: | Class III | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Reavill, Peter - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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