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Description: | Pyramidal mount, hollow with a square cell at the apex, now empty, and a bar across the open base. Each face is defined by a finely incised line and the field inside is divided into three by two incised lines, inlaid with niello. The triangles defined by these lines have recessed fields which are gilded. The blunt apex of the mount carries a square cell, which is empty. Similar pyramidal mounts are generally set with a small plate garnet.Pyramidal strap mounts dating from the early Anglo-Saxon period fall into two groups distinguished from each other by their size and height. The taller and often more ornate versions functioned as part of a sword harness, perhaps tightening the looped strap that held the scabbard to the sword belt. Their currency extends from the early 7th century into the 8th. The function of smaller, lighter mounts such as this example is not clear, but presumably they were more than decorative and may have secured straps attaching knives, which were generally scabbarded, to a waist belt. Both types are well known in Continental and early Anglo-Saxon contexts, although Anglo-Saxon examples are invariably made with a bar across the hollow back through which a strap can be threaded. Continental types are more usually either pierced vertically or made with an integral plate and are designed to be riveted to a strap. The continental distribution of small pyramidal strap mounts is concentrated in the Frankish heartlands on the middle Rhine. The distribution of Anglo-Saxon examples of the Kilham type has a broadly East Anglian bias - a similar mount, in copper-alloy rather than silver, was found at Wenhaston, Suffolk, and pyramidal strap mounts with pairs of triangular impressions on each face, are recorded from Narborough and Dalling in Norfolk and Pebmarsh in Essex (all unpublished). Recent finds, including this example from Kilham and a very similar example, also silver, from Alton, Wiltshire (no. 60 below) are broadening this distribution.Height: 9mm; base: 10 x 9mm. | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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