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Description: | A complete copper-alloy lion-headed stud, so called as it is decorated to resemble a stylised lion's head. Circular in plan measuring c20.9mm in diameter and 12.2mm in thickness, the front face is shaped and pyramidal in cross-section, the back face is hollow. The lowest part of the front face is undecorated. There is then a step up to the next ledge, which is decorated with transverse engraved lines representing the lion's mane and oval shaped grooves representing its ears. The next element slopes more steeply, and is decorated with oval engraved eyes each with a central drilled dot, a groove forms the mouth. The uppermost element is sub-triangular and represents the nose of the lion. There is one drilled dot representing the lion's nostrils. The back face is hollow, and in the centre of the reverse is the corroded remains of a iron rivet, The rest of the back face is filled with a white solder. Lion-headed studs have been found elsewhere in Suffolk at Barking (see SF8842), Rattlesden (see SF8319) and Hatcheston. The lion-head motif is believed to depict the devouring powers of death and is used in provincial Roman art as a decorative motif on stone funerary monuments. H Borrill has examined 75 lion-headed studs from South East England and East Anglia, as well as those found at Skeleton Green, Hertfordshire. He argues that they were manufactured specifically to decorate cremation caskets, and used to attached lock-plates to the casket via their iron rivets (Borrill 1981, 312-316, fig 117 and 119).
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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