IRON AGE HARNESS FITTING

-300

Complete cast copper alloy miniature terret ring. The terret ring is sub circular in plan and semicircular in section having a completely flat rear. It is 23.86mm in diameter and weighs 6.01g. The frame of the ring is broader and thicker towards the bottom, being 7.68mm wide and 4.1mm thick. It tapers and thins as it arches to the top point where it is 3.52mm wide and 2.8mm thick. At the bottom of the frame are a pair of hemispherical knops, 7.34mm thick and 4.94mm wide, set with a gap of 3.3mm between them. The portion of frame between the gap is the same width but is slightly thinner being 3.34mm thick. The ring is very abraded and none of the original surface survives. It is now pitted with exposed surfaces showing as mid to light green.Very similar miniature terrets are known from burial K5:1 at Kirkburn in East Yorkshire and are illustrated in Stead, 1991, Iron Age Cemeteries in East Yorkshire, English Heritage, Figure 37 and 38. Here they were found in association with vase-headed linch-pins from cart burials. Stead explains (page 47) that the terret may have been used to receive a leather thong that helped to secure the lower , slotted on, terminal of the linch-pin, so that it could not dislodge accidentally but could be quickly untied to remove the wheel. The flat back may have allowed the terret to be inset into the axle. However Stead acknowledges the fact that this interpretation is unproved.However, it is certain that the miniature terret recorded here must have served the same purpose, whatever that purpose may be and clearly comes from a cart. Following the East Yorkshire examples it probably dates from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD.