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Description: | Circular domed object made from gold, consisting of a circular back sheet, an incomplete filigree collar, and a domed upper sheet. The back sheet is 13.0mm in diameter and was probably originally flat; it is now very slightly concave, around a flat rim underneath the narrow flange running around the domed upper sheet. There are several small indentations, as if the back sheet has been poked repeatedly by a sharp point. There is one tiny circular hole close to the edge and, directly opposite and close to the edge, a tear perhaps through a second hole. The surviving hole is c. 0.6mm in diameter. The edge of the back sheet has been trimmed, not always perfectly neatly.The domed front sheet is now battered and squashed, showing the hollow nature of the dome. The indentation in the top is complex, not merely flattening, and looks almost like a toothmark from a bite. The object remains complete, however, and the inside of the dome cannot be seen. The surviving height is 5.5mm but it was probably originally closer to 7mm. There is no decoration on the dome and it was probably always smoothly hemispherical. There is a narrow flange around the edge of the dome but it has been joined to the backplate so well that the join is not visible.The filigree collar runs around about half of the object, not sitting on but just above the narrow flange; it appears to be a very fine rope-twist of two unbeaded wires, and has an area of wear in the middle of the surviving part. The diameter of 13mm represents the complete diameter of the entire object, and it weighs 1.0g.This domed object is clearly a component from a larger item. It closely resembles the domed rivet caps or covers found on late 6th- and 7th-century triangular buckles (e.g. Speake 1980, pls. 6 and 7) and on 7th-century sword pommels (e.g. StH 29 from the Staffordshire Hoard, which is 10mm in diameter), but its flat backplate with peripheral holes could not accommodate any part of a rivet. It is not impossible that a cap could have been attached by two pins through the backplate over the top of a rivet, but this seems like a clumsy and unnecessary solution.Alternatively it also resembles a 7th-century bulla pendant (compare those from the Desborough necklace, Webster and Backhouse (eds) 1991, no.13), but there is no scar from any missing suspension loop.Similar items on the PAS database include the 7th-century items LIN-A08971 and LIN-A09748, but these are smaller (7mm diameter), have backplates with large central holes and jagged, torn edges, and have beaded (in one case double) collars rather than twisted wire.Given all these considerations, it seems unlikely that this object is indeed of early-medieval date.This report is by Helen Geake with secondary identifier Sonja Marzinzik.
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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