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Description: | Cast copper-alloy buckle frame, triangular in plan and semi-circular in cross-section, with a flat reverse. The frame may have originally been D-shaped, like the comparanda below, and been bent into this new form.At the apex of each of the points of the triangle, there is a sub-triangular animal head terminal with circular eye sockets which may have originally been settings for a stone. One of the three terminals is missing, but would probably have looked the same.The frame is chamfered on the outer edge, but still leaving a flat upper surface which is ornamented with a zig-zag pattern, with some barred ornament along the chamfered surface. Underneath, the curving part of the frame is chamfered inwards slightly from the outer edge.The pin and bar are missing; the bar would originally have connected the missing terminal with its opposite. A recess between the eyes of the other larger surviving snake head represents the pin rest. A number of similar examples have been found in Suffolk, from Orford (SF7560), Nacton (SF-9F02E3), Claydon (SF-79DAF8) and Mendham (SF-76F478). The Mendham example was attached to the belt by means of an additional plate wrapped around the pin-bar and cut in at the outer edges to accommodate the frame. Other examples on the PAS database include NMS-9B0AC7 and an interesting pair of rectangular variants, HAMP-BA9FC0 and LVPL-99FBD2 (found in Suffolk).A similar buckle frame from Old Sarum, although not from a dated context, is in the Ashmolean Museum (Hinton 1974, no. 32) and is also illustrated by Cuddeford (1996, p. 16, no. 15). They are dated on art-historical grounds to the 9th to 11th centuries.The closest parallels are in the Borre style, named after a site in Denmark, but this particular type of buckle has only been found in Britain and Ireland and therefore should be referred to as Anglo-Scandinavian or Hiberno-Norse (see below)."The triangular headed animal is found commonly on 10th century strap ends in Ireland that are probably made in Hiberno-Norse Dublin, but based on Anglo-Saxon forms. They have been found on high status crannogs in the midlands that were in commercial contact with Dublin and an example was found in the vicinity of a Viking house at Truska, Co. Galway. I dont have any exact parallels from buckles, however the animal form is found on moulding on a buckle plate from the royal crannog of Coolure Demesne, Co. Westmeath (Coolure Demesne Crannog, Lough Derravaragh: an introduction to its archaeology and landscapes, Aidan O'Sullivan, Rob Sands and Eamonn P. Kelly, Wordwell, Bray, 2007, page 29, Fig.34, No. E621:79). This site also produced other Viking Age material including hack silver, ingots, scales, weights etc. If your buckle were to turn up on a Viking Age site in Ireland it would probably be assumed to have a Hiberno-Norse background" (Eamonn Kelly, National Museum of Ireland, pers comm).
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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