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Description: | A cast copper alloy openwork object, which could be either a sword or dagger pommel or a holy water sprinkler (known as a mace).
The object is a dodecahedron, i.e. it has twelve diamond shaped facets. The object is hollow and square in plan. The top four facets are the largest. They have been arranged to form a point. Two of the four facets are openwork crosses; the other two have an openwork branched design. Below these, four smaller diamonds are arranged laterally.
Each of these has the same openwork cross design. Below this, a further four diamonds, again with openwork crosses, are arranged around the square tang hole (width 11.15mm).
The remains of small circular knops are visible on all the angles where the facets join, and at the centre of the crosses. These knops are shaped in such a way that if this object were a water sprinkler then these knops would help to distribute the water droplets more evenly. There has been much discussion about this piece on the UK Detector net web forum and many experts have suggested what it could be. Their identifications have included dagger/sword pommel and the holy water sprinkler idea.
The tang hole extends above the object, with two attachment holes on opposite sides, one of which has worn away. The edges of the tang hole are well worn. The object is worn and has a light greyish green patina.
No exact parallel for this object could be found, however two similar examples of pommels are illustrated in the London Museum Medieval Catalogue, (page 23 fig.2:1 and 2;2 ). These have been dated to the 11th -13th century. | 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: | 1000
1300 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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