EARLY MEDIEVAL HOOKED TAG

1000

A silver hooked tag of late Anglo-Saxon date. It is in the form of a stylised lily, with a single circular attachment hole at the top (1.09mm in diameter) and a hook at the bottom bent to the reverse. It is decorated on the front with grooves accentuating the two outward-curving leaves and central stem, with an inverted lily at its base whose central stem is formed from a V shape at the top of the hook, and whose outer leaves are intertwined with the upright lily, passing under the base of its leaves and over the stem. The engraving has been done by rocking the tool to and fro, so that the edges of the line have a slight zig-zag. The hook is squashed and rather narrow, narrowing from 2.69mm to 0.82mm in width at the point.It measures 17.87mm long, max.12.91mm wide and max.1.55mm thick (at the top of the hook). The sheet-silver body of the tag is 0.48mm thick. It weighs 0.67g.Similar hooked tags can be found in Read 2008, p.20, nos.89 (copper alloy; PAS database no. SF-D18A63) and 90 (silver; PAS database no. YORYM-580904; TAR 2004, no. 92; 2004T50). These examples are all slightly different, but of the same basic form, and their rocked engraving technique dates them to the late Anglo-Saxon period, probably the 11th century.