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Description: | A copper alloy stirrup-strap mount of Williams' Class A, Type 10a (Williams 1997 p 53). The pear-shaped mount of 11th century date is extensively decorated in the Urnes style in niello with silver wire inlay. The ornament depicts a curling serpent-like beast whose head with pointed oval eyes forms the apex of the mount. The body bifurcates at a spiral hip joint; the body continues in a series of loops and appears to terminate in a scroll to the left of the hip. The other limb appears to end in a foot at the bottom left-hand corner, but this detail is unclear. Possibly two secondary snake-like forms intertwine with the main beast; the head and eye of one appears on the right-hand outer edge. The curling tails of these secondary creatures form a pair of attachment holes on the shoulders of the mount. Fig..b is an attempt to interpret the ornament. There is a single copper alloy rivet in the flange together with the corroded remains of the iron fitting which is normally found in this position. This mount differs from others of this Type in a number of respects. Firstly the extensive use of niello is unprecedented in the corpus of these mounts. Here it is used to infill the spaces between the main forms rather than forming the creatures themselves. The second unique feature is the lack of an apex attachment loop and its replacement with a pair of shoulder loops which are both integral with the ornament. The use of a copper alloy, rather than iron, rivet is also unusual. (text by D.Williams)
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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