|
Date: |
|
Description: | A copper-alloy fitting most likely to be from a stylus-like implement. The terminal is in the shape of a Romanesque dragon, 78mm in length and 13mm in width at its widest point. The dragon holds a circular ball in its jaws which is 6mm in diameter. Its snout is broad and its eyes are oval and bulbous; there are rows of circular indentations either side of the snout and beneath and behind the eyes. The dragon has two small triangular-shaped ears set well back on the top of the head, which is fairly flat. The neck has a circumferential ring of circular indentations around it; it is long, and merges into the long straight back, which has a central ridge along its top, with transverse grooves across the ridge. On the sides of the dragon there are two folded wings, each almost triangular, 25mm in length and 9mm in width and decorated with transverse rows of short grooves and then longer parallel longditudinal grooves. Near to the front of each wing there is a leg. Each leg is bent at a right angle, and terminates in feet with five downward-curving claws. Behind the legs, on the underside of the dragon, there is incised cross-hatched decoration. Overall the body of the dragon is oval in cross-section, and flares towards the attachment end at the tail. The attachment end has two circular holes through it, one on either side of the dragon, and the dragon's back (the top of the object) stretches into a tail which is longer than the underside and terminates in a loop curving upwards to form two circular holes or loops, the end hole larger than its neighbour. The attachment end is hollow and 22mm in depth; the head end of the dragon appears to be solid. A similar dragon was found at Winchester and dated to between the late 11th and the early 13th centuries, although it holds a triangular spatula in its jaws (Biddle 1990, p731-732, Fig, 210). The ball in the jaws of this dragon could have been for a slightly different purpose, although perhaps connected with the paraphernalia of writing. Other possibilities for its use could be as a spoon or pin handle, although these are less likely functions than that of a stylus. James Robinson of the British Museum has seen an image of this object.A similar object in the shape of a dragon was published by A. W. Mårtensson in 'Styli och vaxtavlor'. Jahrbuch Kulturen 1961 (Lund 1962) bild 13. This, instead of a socket, has an integral spike which supports the identification as a stylus. The dragon on Mårtensson's example, however, has a short rod rather than a ball between its jaws, and no obvious area which could have been used as an eraser. (Thanks to Torsten Lüdecke for drawing attention to this parallel.)
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
|
More Like this...
-
STYLUS
A copper-alloy fitting most likely…
-
STYLUS
A copper alloy stylus of…
-
-
stylus
Medieval mount, possibly a stylus…
-
STYLUS
Medieval mount, possibly a stylus…
-
STYLUS
Partly gilded silver stylus, now…
-
STYLUS
Description: Part of shaft and…
-
CHAPE
Cast copper alloy fitting in…
-
BROOCH
A Roman, copper alloy horse…
-
|