|
Date: |
|
Description: | A fragment of niello-inlaid silver with Anglo-Saxon decoration dating to the 9th century, perhaps a strap-end of Thomas's Class A, Type 1 but missing both ends. The breaks are fairly worn. The edges of the object are straighter than is usual for strap-ends, and are decorated differently; each has a double-ridged border, but the left-hand border is not further decorated while right-hand border has regular transverse grooves producing a beaded or ladder-pattern effect. In the central sunken panel is a counter-relief Trewhiddle-style animal with the head at the top. The head has a niello-inlaid circular eye, an open mouth, and a grooved collar. A long ear at the back of the head has a single nick and ends in a rounded lobe inlaid with a dot of niello. An element filling the space below the chin may possibly be a long tongue.The body is below, with a pair of nicks across the chest just below the collar, and a foreleg, ending in a two-toed foot, bent across the body. Below the foreleg, more niello survives, particularly in two large patches, but it is harder to recognise the individual body parts. Another double nick can be seen and the fragment may end at part of a hind leg, but there are also hard-to-identify elements decorated with blind-drilled holes. The animal can be compared with that on another 9th-century silver strap-end, CAMHER-9B5D02 (2007T536). The reverse is undecorated.The object cannot be identified as a strap-end with complete security, as it is missing its attachment end and terminal, both of which are very distinctive on 9th-century strap-ends. Moreover, the difference in the decoration of the two borders is unusual among strap-ends. The Trewhiddle-style art, however, gives a secure date broadly to the 9th century, and so the object falls within the provision of the Treasure Act 1996.Amy DownesHelen Geake
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
|
More Like this...
-
STRAP END
Description: Middle to late Anglo-Saxon…
-
STRAP END
Anglo-Saxon silver strap end, 28mm…
-
HOARD
Hoard of 23 coins, four…
-
STRAP END
An incomplete Early Medieval silver…
-
STRAP END
A ninth-century copper-alloy strap-end, now…
-
STRAP END
Description: A complete silver Anglo-Saxon…
-
-
STRAP END
A cast Anglo-Saxon silver strap-end,…
-
STRAP END
A cast Anglo-Saxon silver strap-end,…
-
STRAP END
A cast Anglo-Saxon silver strap-end,…
|