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Description: | Description: A complete cast gilded silver mount, apparently complete. The mount is roughly lozengiform or kite-shaped, with a flat, undecorated reverse and two perforations, perhaps for attachment. The front is decorated with softly contoured relief ornament which is hard to decode; in fact, it is difficult to decide which way up the object should be held.It may be interpreted as a forward-facing seated figure. At the top (the narrower end of the object) is what appears to be an animal head seen from the top, with a wide snout and large oval eyes. Two worn projections to the top of the head may possibly represent the remains of ears, but are perhaps more likely to be the remains of a loop, either for suspension as a pendant, or for attachment to a corresponding hook.Long hair or a cowl appears to extend to the shoulders as a ridge down each edge of the object; these ridges then merge with further framing ridges which may form the arms.Beneath a short, wide neck is a softly contoured chest, with a ridge below perhaps representing a folded garment; the perforations have been made, one slightly higher than the other, at either end of this ridge. Below are further soft bumps which may represent the knees. The arms extend to the pointed sides of the kite shape and then turn inwards, perhaps to hands holding an indistinct feature composed of a symmetrical set of curving lines which may represent the drapery of a dress or robe.The perforations are small and circular, with a raised rim particularly on the reverse indicating that they have probably been drilled or punched from the front. There are no obvious breaks. There is gilding on both faces, which survives best towards the wider end on both faces.The function of this object is unclear. Although the two clearly deliberate attachment holes may suggest it was attached by rivets or stitching to a separate backing, the holes seem out of character with the rest of the object and it is possible that they are due to a secondary modification.Dimensions: Length: 19.1mm. Width: 11.6mm. Thickness: 2.9mm. Weight: 2g.Discussion: This has proved a difficult object to identify. Curators with expertise in the high-medieval and post-medieval periods were consulted and agree that it is unlikely to date to either of these periods. The soft contours of the relief recall lost-wax castings of the 10th or 11th centuries.The closest parallels in size, shape and material which could be found are two gilded silver objects with relief decoration, 2005T260 (KENT-3DE0A0, now in the British Museum, accession number 2007,8009.1) and SUSS-052A12. KENT-3DE0A0 has been identified as a 10th-century openwork mount depicting a central plant stem inhabited by two confronted birds and with an animal head to top and bottom. It is larger than YORYM-503DF2 but, when held upside down, there is a striking resemblance in shape. SUSS-052A12 is larger again, but otherwise very similar to KENT-3DE0A0, with a central stem, possible confronted animals and animal-heads at top and bottom; this, however, has been provisionally dated to the 8th or 9th centuries. No function has been identified for either of these objects.The possibility of the decoration depicting a seated human figure recalls the ornament on the Sandford reliquary (Ashmolean Museum 1891.10; Hinton 1974, 56-60). The Sandford reliquary depicts Christ in Majesty.; it has a framing ridge around the edge, a similar (but far smaller) animal head at the top, a seated figure with curving drapery across the knees, a ridge across the body, similar treatment of the hair and a drilled hole, but is far bigger at 73mm long. There are many other differences between the Sandford reliquary and 2013T129, including the larger scale of the animal head, the absence of a clear human head and the greater symmetry of T129, but the similarities are also noteworthy; the chest ridge is interpreted by Hinton as a belt.Hinton comments that the Sandford reliquary 'is unlike anything else recorded from England', and although Haith points to parallels from ivories and manuscripts (in Backhouse et al. 1984, no. 268) there is little within metalwork to compare with it. The octofoil shape is one of the reliquary's unusual features, which matches well with the unusual shape of 2013T129.The conclusion to be drawn is that 2013T129 is likely to have been made in a milieu familiar with the general form of objects such as the Sandford reliquary, with an animal head at the top, a softly curved complex outline, and largely symmetrical relief decoration within. The motif, however, appears to have been largely misunderstood, and the size is remarkably small. perhaps influenced by objects such as SUSS-052A12 and KENT-3DE0A0.Date: The few parallels that can be drawn with other objects suggest a late Anglo-Saxon date, perhaps 10th or 11th century.
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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