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Description: | A copper alloy Early Medieval sleeve clasp. The object consists of a rectangular sectioned bar which is complete. It is decorated with a row of vertical chevrons or arrows along one side of the top, and nine irregular ring and dot motifs. There is a copper alloy rivet through each end of the bar, fixing it to a piece of copper alloy sheet. The sheet appears to have been the same length as the bar, but wider. It projects on one side by the width of the bar again before what appears to be a finished edge. This projection is decorated with a row of chevrons along each long edge. The projection is broken at both ends. The sheet would also have projected from the bar on the other side, but has broken off level with the bar. There is no decoration on the reverse, but the sheet is so thin that the stamped chevrons show through the metal. The object has a beautiful smooth turquoise patina. There is no evidence of any further attached parts but one break in the end of the projecting sheet may be part of a circular attachment hole. This object is one half of a set of sleeve clasps. There would probably have been three circular holes in the projecting flange originall, used to sew the metal onto the cuff. The projection on the other side of the bar would have been either a hook or an eye. A complete set of sleeve claps with similar construction can be seen in Haughton and Powlesland (1999) "West Heslerton - the Anglian Cemetery", grave 173. They are Hines type B13, as are the examples in grave 66, 36, 26 and 12. This example is Hines' Form B13a, dating to the 6th century (Hines 1993 Clasps, Hektenspenner, Agraffen: Anglo-Scandinavian Clasps of Classes A-C of the 3rd to 6th Centuries A.D.: Typology, Diffusion and Function, page 49-50).
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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