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Description: | A circular copper alloy mount or possible pendant ornament of possible Early Early-Medieval date (c.500-750), with an openwork triskele design at the centre, each arm supported by a narrow projection from the surround. At the cetre of the triskele is a small circular depression.The object measures 64mm in diameter and varies in thickness between 0.8mm and 1.2mm, being thickest at the centre and thinning towards the edges, which are slightly convex from the front and concave from the back. It weighs 20.6g. To the reverse there are no signs of attachment.Kevin Leahy and Helen Geake (PAS National Finds Advisers) comment: 'I agree that this is a mystifying object. It brings to mind the Merovingian 'Zierscheiben' discs one of of which was described by David Hinton in his book on the Tattershall Thorpe grave (A Smith in Lindsey; The Anglo-Saxon Grave at Tattershall Thorpe, Lincolnshire', Soc Med Arch 2000). David cites as his source a book by D Renner, Die Durchbrochenen Zierscheiben der Merwingerzeit' Mainz, 1970. Swastika motifs are well known on these objects and not all of them have the central hole seen on the Tattershall find. It seems that they are of sixth-seventh century date' (KL pers.comm. 2012).'It isn't that dissimilar to a 54mm openwork disc from Gotland, in the Ashmolean - Catalogue of the Continental Collections p. 64, no. 25.1. Both have a circular element in the centre and three curving lines. The Gotland one apparently dates to c. 600-c. 750. I think they are thought to be pendant ornaments or maybe mounts from bags etc. It could also possibly be a hanging bowl escutcheon, albeit a very odd one, but it would be worth looking to see if there is any solder on the reverse. The only remotely similar one is the basal escutcheon from Garton Station (Bruce-Mitford 2005, no. 30, p. 142) - this has a triskele openwork pattern and is 53 mm in diameter - but of course as a basal escutcheon it's flat' (HG pers.comm. 2012).
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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