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Description: | A damaged and incomplete medieval copper-alloy harness pendant of 12th-/13th-century date. The pendant comprises an oval plate with a possible central boss and a projecting lobe surviving, to varying degrees, on three of its four corners. Damage has occurred in the form of a loss at one corner extending into the body of the pendant, and also twisting such that it is difficult to determine whether the boss is 'true' or illusory. This lobes are shallowly convex.The upper side of the pendant protrudes as a triangle and tapers into in integral loop set at a right-angle to the plate. The loop has also been twisted. Below the loop is a perforation, probably for a separate rivet, now missing. Around the hole are punched annulets. Decoration elsewhere on the pendant is obscured by corrosion product. Traces of gilding can be seen on the pendant's front. Red/brown metal, consistent with gilding, can be seen under a mid-green patina at the 'boss'.The pendant measures 35.9mm across, and 49.8mm high. It is 1.1mm thick at the plate and 7.9mm thick at the suspension loop. It weighs 7.22g.Similar pendants can be found illustrated in Ashley (2002, 6; nos. 10-12). Those examples cited have a plain central boss around which is a radiating star; this object is too unclear to determine such a decorative scheme. Two of the examples have a rivet hole located in the same place as on this object, below the suspension loop. Such pendants, formed of sheet metal, often decorated with punched annulets and gilded are attributed amid 12th- to early 13th-century date.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/ | Go to resource |
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