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Description: | A cruciform mount made from gilded copper alloy. The mount has a circular, slightly convex centre set with a circular domed cabochon-cut garnet. Around the garnet is a circular ridge, and two more concentric circular ridges divide the centre into two concentric rings. Each of these rings is decorated with diagonal lines to create a twisted effect; the twists run in opposite directions. Two of the four arms are now largely missing, and the surviving arms are of distinctly different shapes. One (Arm 1) is mushroom- or 'pelta' shaped, with the edges of the pelta formed from a pair of Style II birds' beaks. In between is a pelta-shaped panel of relief Style II interlace probably intended to represent a single animal. The outer ridge around the centre of the mount does not run across the base of Arm 1, but instead turns a right-angle to form the edges of the panel of interlace. The other arm to survive complete (Arm 2) is a simpler asymmetric drooping shape, infilled with abstract Style II relief interlace. A little under half of a third arm (Arm 3) survives, opposite Arm 2; this carries interlace identical to that on Arm 2. The ridge around the circular centre runs across the base of Arms 2 and 3, and also across the base of the fourth arm, which is otherwise missing. This, and comparison with the Cowbridge mount (see below), suggests that Arms 2-4 were identical. Arms 1 and 2 retain long lugs on the reverse, pierced for attachment; Arm 3 has part of a broken lug. The lugs all run longitudinally along the arms and rise c. 7 mm from the surface of the back of the mount. The original dimensions of the mount were c 38mm x 42mm. A close parallel to this horse-harness mount was found in 2003 in Cowbridge, Glamorgan. The Cowbridge mount has a similar circular centre, but this time has only one ring of twist-effect lines; it is set with a spherical blue glass bead. The arms on the Cowbridge mount are longer, but are again of two different types; one arm is pelta-shaped, but three are in the shape of a profile bird with beak, leg, wing and tail. When the two mounts are compared, it can be seen that the asymmetric arms on the Nether Wallop mount must derive their shape from the outline of the bird arms on the Cowbridge mount. Chris Fern has studied the Cowbridge mount in conjunction with the harness fittings from Sutton Hoo mound 17, and has concluded that it represents a development from a circular mount plus a separate pelta-shaped mount to a point where the two mounts are made in one piece. This type of mount would have been used on a bridle, at the junction of the noseband and cheekpiece where three functional straps meet a decorative terminal. The Nether Wallop mount must represent a further development from the Cowbridge mount, as its decoration is clearly derivative. It should, therefore, date to the middle or later seventh century.
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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