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Description: | A shield or belt mount (which would have been mounted onto thick leather or wood) from the Anglo-Saxon period, dating to the Late 5th to early 6th century, circa 470-600. The find does not have a pin bar lug or a catchplate, suggesting that this find is a mount rather than a brooch. The mount is cross-shaped almost swastika-like appearance. Each arm of the cross is a slightly elongated D shape, with an almost circular cut-out on one side. The obverse of the mount has been enamelled, gilded and shows traces of silvering which suggests the Late 5th to 6th Century date. The obverse consists of a central square containing four sunken triangular cells in which some red enamel survives. The cell walls make up a diagonal cross and in the middle of each cell is a small sub-triangular dot of reserved copper alloy. Early Medieval enamels often decay in places forming a yellowy colour this can also be seen. Around this central square are a series of borders - a wide band which is gilded and has a raised central row of (ungilded) beading, and then a raised line forming a square. This raised line is now ungilded (presumably the gilding was there originally, but has now worn off). Outside the raised line there is a little more gilding. Each D-shaped arm shows evidence of having once been silvered. Only traces of silvering survive. The reverse is free from decoration. A spike or rivet projects from the centre of the mount (this spike would have attached the mount to the wood or leather. Each D-shaped arm appears to have a small bump (on the reverse of the mount) it has been suggested that these bumps (clearly evident on three out of the four arms) may have been smaller rivets (although for all four to break off in the same way is perhaps a bit unlikely). It has also been suggested that they could be moulding marks. However, these bumps may have helped the mount grip to the wood or leather. | 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: | 470
600 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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