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Description: | Copper-alloy object, perhaps a strap-fitting. One right-angled corner survives, with surviving dimensions of 25 x 33 mm. The two surviving edges both have angled flanges on the reverse, and also on the reverse is a chunky but broken pierced D-shaped lug. The front is corroded but many of the details of the decoration can be seen. There are three rectangular bosses, all with the remains of sheet silver covering them. The most complete area of silver retains some irregular diagonal cross-hatched grooves. The bosses sit on top of relief ribbons which curve around in a rather angular way. The ribbons have ornament made up of short grooves which form abstract patterns. Enough survives of the ribbons and bosses to show that the design could have been symmetrical. If so, the 33 mm surviving length or width could be extended to an original measurement of 48 mm. Barry Ager, Sue Youngs and Leslie Webster have seen this object and all agree that they know of no close parallel. Leslie Webster has suggested that it may be a buckle plate or other strap fitting, and that the design is a late 9th-century debased and crumpled acanthus pattern indicating Carolingian (9th-century French) affinities. It may have been a local copy or one from somewhere else on the fringes of the Carolingian world, perhaps the trading town of Domburg in the Netherlands. She feels that it is less likely to represent Viking loot, and more likely to represent peaceful trade or other contacts. A useful parallel might be the strap-union from Harkstead (HRK 028; West 1998, 42 and pl. III.1). | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | 850
900 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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