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Date: |
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Description: | Description: Unidentified object in the shape of a bird, now slightly crushed but apparently never of very fine workmanship. It has a flat gold backplate with a beaded-wire border running around the small crescent-shaped profile head looking left, probably intended as a that of a predatory bird; two wings, one curved and pointed but the other (under the head) just a rounded circle; and flared base, perhaps intended to represent a tail. The beaded wire of this border is about 0.7mm in diameter and is very worn, rubbed flat in places and scraped in others; it is missing entirely at the bottom right-hand corner of the tail.Within this border, five complete or almost-complete annulets are soldered on, made from the same beaded wire as the border and similarly worn. A larger annulet is in the centre, with four others slightly smaller; two below filling the tail, one above at the chest (the junction of the wings and the neck) and one filling the rounded wing. None of the ends of the wires meet, and the workmanship is generally poor. The other wing has a C-shape of beaded wire which appears to be originally this shape; and the head has a small rounded eye with a long tail behind running down the centre of the neck.There are four more-or-less circular holes piercing the backplate, and from the reverse it can be seen that although they are all pushed through raggedly from front to back, they are a fairly consistent circular shape, diameter c. 1.5-2 mm. One fills the beak in front of the eye; the second fills the annulet in the rounded wing; the third (a squarer hole) is in the tip of the rear wing; and the fourth is in the front (left) corner of the tail. The other corner of the tail appears to be unperforated but is quite damaged, and a hole may have been lost here.The reverse of the backplate is undecorated and quite smooth with a few small scratches. The front of the backplate appears much rougher, perhaps as a result of (or in preparation for) soldering.Dimensions: Length: 16.1 mm. Width: 14.7 mm. Weight: 1.22 g.Discussion and Date: In size and overall shape this object is very like SF-394035 (2012T853), a garnet-set gold bird-shaped mount of far better workmanship. SF-394035 has been identified by Noel Adams as of Continental manufacture and late 5th-century date.
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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