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Description: | Early Medieval (6th century Anglo-Saxon) incomplete cast copper horse harness mount.There is a worn break across the top of the mount, which most likely occurred in antiquity. The mount is in four sections, described from top to bottom:The top panel is rectangular, measuring 16.45mm wide, 9.21mm wide. It is decorated with a face mask motif, comprised of two circular eyes and a squat triangular snout below. There is an off centre rivet hole covering the upper part of the snout at the left hand eye; this rivet hole may have been a later addition due to the fact is obscures the decoration.The section immediately below is lozengeform with a shallow triangular cross section The second rivet hole is located on this panel almost immediately below the snout of the beast on the above panel. The lozenge panel is decorated with two narrow lines running down the centre of the panel, spaced approximately 3mm apart. In between these lines are two lines of punched dots. There is further decoration bordering the edges of this panel in the form of double curved lines; there are traces of gilding in all these recesses on the lozenge panel.Below this is another face mask panel of the same design as that described above; this panel has a central iron rivet through it. There is a trace of gilding in the left eye, however this is largely obscured by corrosion. The lowest panel is sub-triangular, with the two outer edges being slightly concave and the base edge slightly convex. There is no decoration on this panel however there are traces of a white metal coating.In its current condition, the mount is 66.96mm long and weighs 17.84 grams. It is 16.83mm wide across the top face mask. The lozenge panel is 13.80mm wide, expanding to 21.37mm wide before decreasing to 11.47mm wide. The lower face mask is 16.13mm wide. The sub-triangular panel is 8.97mm wide increasing to 23.11mm wide.Discussion: The upper rivet hole that partially obscures the facemask design is probably from a later repair, as there is a worn break at the apex of the mount.This horse harness fitting is similar to the footplate section of 6th century cruciform brooches. Rivet holes made for repair to cruciform brooches can be located in similar positions as those used on horse harness fittings; for example the brooch from Great Chesterford (Essex) in grave 20 (Evison 1994 p 94 & p143 figure 23 grave 20 1a, 1c and 1c). The Great Chesterford brooch broke at the base of the bow, and the repaired brooch, complete with the bronze plate mend and other repairs to the sprung pin mechanism were included with other artefacts in the burial.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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