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Description: | A complete copper alloy openwork hare and hound knife handle dating to the third or fourth centuries AD. The stylised hare is 23mm in length and 16mm in height. It has large triangular shaped ears laid against its back and a tapering head. Its eye is picked out as ring and dot and its body is decorated on both faces with a row of four ring and dot motifs. Its back legs are stretched out behind to indicate a running motion. The hound is again stylised and larger than the hare, measuring 39mm in length from nose to the tip of its tail, it is 18mm in height at its tallest point, where its tail curls back on itself. Its back legs are stretched back and its front legs bent indicating a running motion. Its head is long with the nose upturned at its tip. It rests on the hare's back. Its brow ridge is prominent, its eye is rendered as a ring and dot motif and there is another transverse ridge beyond the first, probably intended to represent laid back ears. The back is arched and like the hare its body is decorated on both faces with a row of ring and dot motifs (one face has four; the other six). There is a further ring and dot motif on the front leg of the hound. The tail stretches out from the body and ends with an upcurved tip. The hound and hare are running along a horizontal bar which is also decorated with a row of six ring and dot motifs. This bar has a longitudinal slot in its underside as do the hound and hares legs. Traces of corroded iron can be seen within this slot and this is all that now remains of the iron knife blade. The tail of the hound touches the solid rectangular part of the handle, which measures 11mm in length and 16mm in width. It has two parallel pairs of vertical decorative ribs across it and its upper edge is moulded. At its terminal end the vertical slot, which runs through it and the rest of the handle, can be seen. Corroded ironwork is visible in this slot. A circular iron rivet pierces the handle, near to its lower edge. This rivet would have held the iron blade in place and allowed it to have been moved freely. The knife as a whole measures 73mm in length and 19mm in width. This form of folding knife is relatively common and the representation of the hunt is a common decorative theme on a variety of other forms of Roman material culture, particularly in the fourth century. There are several parallels for this particular knife handle. There is a published example in Richborough 4 (Bushe-Fox 1949, plate XXXVI no. 118) and several have been recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme. These include SF-32AEB7 from Laxfield in Suffolk and NMS-328581 from East Winch in Norfolk.
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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