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Description: | Copper alloy decorative terminal. This object is in the shape of a three dimensional caricatured lion. It is 26.8mm long, 10.24mm wide, 30.84mm high and weighs 23.66g.The body, which is 12.6mm of the total length, and legs, which are 9.5mm long, are simple subrectangles, with no attempt at realism. The body is slightly wasted towards the centre as if something was meant to fit around it. The lion's head is subcircular with a slight crest. It has a width of 11.78mm and a length of approximately 14mm. It has roughly moulded ears either side, two forward facing indentations for eyes and seemingly no mane. The lion's snout is broad, with two indentations at the front representing nostrils. A subcircular hole to the front of the snout gives the impression that it's mouth is open. Also there is a subcircular hole either side to the snout, suggesting that a bar or pin could be passed through the lions mouth. A small lump to the rear of the lion's body suggests that there may once have been a moulded tail. The lion stands atop an integrally moulded subrectangular base that is 10.5mm wide, 16.52mm long and 5mm thick. This base is itself on top of an integrally moulded circular socket, that has a surviving length of 6.76mm and an external diameter of 9.02mm.Damage to the socket mouth appears to have occurred in antiquity.The object has an overall light green patina with flashes of iron corrosion in and outside of the socket, to the top of the head, at all the holes in the snout and across the area of the nostrils. Though it cannot be stated what object this terminal was originally attached to, it does appear that it was connected to an iron shaft or something similar, and that it may well indeed have had an iron pin running through the lion's mouth. Given the patina of the object and the rendering of the snout similar to other zoomorphic objects of medieval date, a medieval date of c1400 is suggested for this terminal.
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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