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Description: | An incomplete cast copper alloy flat zoomorphic strap end, dating to the 9th century AD (length: 31mm; width: 11mm; thickness: 1.5mm; weight: 2.40g). This probable Trewhiddle-style strap end has an old break (in a straight line across the artefact?s width) just below where the rivets and split end would have functioned as the attachment terminal. The front of the strap end is decorated with the characteristic ?plastic? animal head forming the opposing terminal. Although the tip of the animal head terminal is broken, all of the facial features of the beast are absent apart from large oval ears with half-circle indentations in each of them. Above the beast?s ears and in the main central section of the strap end, there are two touching, billeted cords of a half-circle curving inwards to form a curved ?X? border in the centre. To the left and right within the half-circular fields, there is a singular scrollwork design facing away from each other towards the edge of the artefact. The ?X? shaped border dividing the four areas is itself marked and incised with numerous small hatched lines, which are irregular placed in areas. The fields to the top and bottom of the hatched border do not have any decoration. Additionally, there is hatched incised line is clearly noticeable down the left side of the length of the strap end edge, and is likely to have been down the right side but the artefact is slightly worn in this area. The back of the strap end does not have any decoration. The artefact also has a large crack half way down above the ears, but the incomplete strap end remains in one piece. Overall, the artefact is in a slightly worn but good condition with a dark green patina. A very similar example is illustrated in Wilson, D, M, 1964, ?Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork 700-1100 in the British Museum?, plate XLII and page 202, ref no 136, found in a mine at Youlgreave, Derbyshire. Wilson also dates this similar artefact to the 9th century AD. Wilson also states that the ?typical? strap end first occurs in seventh-century pagan Saxon graves, as at Malton Farm, Barrington, Cambridgeshire, but is chiefly found in later Anglo-Saxon contexts and can most usually be dated on art-historical grounds to the ninth century. The more elaborate examples have a terminal in the form of an animal?s head seen from above. | 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: | 800
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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