|
Date: |
|
Description: | Fragment of silver or white metal, perhaps part of an ingot or cast blank for an unfinished early-medieval strap-end of Thomas's Class B. One end is broken or, more likely, cut, with a smooth facet at both upper and lower edges; the other is thickened and rounded to form a terminal. It is oval in cross-section, measuring 7.0mm wide and 3.75mm thick at the cut or break; the reverse is flattened and undecorated, and the upper surface has irregular transverse grooves along most of its length. The grooves appear to have been cast into the surface of the object, and at the broken end they have been removed either by smoothing of the mould at this point or by subsequent hammering of the cast object. The object tapers irregularly towards a narrowest point measuring 5.0mm wide x 3.4mm thick, then flares again and shortly afterwards ends in a thickened and rounded end which resembles an animal head, with lowered muzzle and tiny pricked ears. The transverse grooves continue beyond the narrowest point right up to the back of the possible head, which is decorated with short grooves at right angles running up to behind and between the ears. There are further transverse grooves across the step between ears and muzzle.Weight is 4.65g, length is 27.68mm, maximum width is 7.01mm and thickness is 4.83mm.Gabor Thomas has seen an image of this object, and comments that it is very likely to represent a cast blank or ingot that was on its way to becoming a Class B strap-end or one of its derivatives. Its semi-fabricated nature brings to mind the fine series of unfinished silver and copper-alloy strap-ends contained in the Sevington hoard, Wilts (Wilson 1964, nos. 72-78), although these are all clearly the broadly 9th-century Type A, and the present object could on stylistic grounds be 10th century or later.
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
Incomplete cast copper alloy strap…
-
STRAP END
Copper alloy, Anglo-Scandinavian strap-end dating…
-
|