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Date: |
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Description: | Cast cu-alloy strap fitting (buckle plate) dating from the medieval period, i.e. c. AD1150-1400. The fitting is complete and would have connected the buckle to the strap. A small pin would have run through the two loops on the left side of the buckle plate (see image) with the terminals of the buckle loop at the bottom and top and the pin in the centre, between the two loops of the buckle plate. The plate is short and narrow and the leather strap would have been fastened to the buckle plate with two small rivets, the rivet holes of which can still be seen on the underside of the buckle plate. The rivets had probably been driven through the top of the plate first before being anchored in the holes of the bottom plate. The bottom plate does not bear any decoration while the top plate shows an intricate moulded decoration depicting a clearly religous scene. The decoration shows a taller seated figure in the centre, with his arms around the two smaller standing figures on his right and left. It seems that the two flanking figures hold their inner arm up to touch the head of the central figure. Much debate has been going on as to who the three figures depicted are and although the holy trinity (i.e. father, son and holy spirit) would be an obvious choice, the depiction of god and the holy spirit were strictly off-limits throughout most of the medieval ages and thus an unlikely choice for a buckle plate such as this. This leaves as possibility either Christ with his parents or 'Christ in Majesty' which is a very common motif in medieval churches and was used in masonry as well as on stained-glass windows. The flanking figures would then be Mary, Christ's mother and the patron saint of the church or, in this case of a personalised item of clothing/fastening, simply any patron saint or an angel that appealed to the wearer.
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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