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Date: |
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Description: | Unidentified object, presumably decorative; perhaps some form of mount, but with no apparent means of attachment. It is basically a long thin triangle, 14 mm in maximum width and 27 mm long. The widest end is incurved and the sides nearest this end have small incurved areas. The reverse is flat and undecorated. The front is very slightly convex, the curve running from top to bottom, and has relief interlace decoration within a relief border. The interlace is simple and perhaps not very well executed. It may represent an animal with an alpha-shaped head at the apex of the triangle, with a straight line forming the eye inside the loop of the alpha. From this a neck extends and curves in a wavy line down the centre of the object; it turns a tight loop into one corner, with a simple ?leg projecting right into the corner itself, and interlaces under the body to the other corner which has a similar tight loop and projecting ?leg. The body then interlaces under and over itself to fill a space in the centre of the wider end, before turning to come back towards the apex. As it does so, it divides into two. One half (another limb?) curves around in a big loop before ending; the other half runs back up and is knotted around the animal's neck before ending alongside the head. Although the interlace is relatively coarse, there is a slight angularity about it which may suggest a date around 700 AD. The shape of the plaque does not give us much of a clue about its function.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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