MEDIEVAL SCABBARD

1100

Copper-alloy scabbard chape, made from a single piece of thick copper-alloy sheet folded in half. The base is trapezoidal, narrowing to 15 mm wide at the bottom, and both halves have a decoratively shaped top with a central V-shaped notch. At each of the four corners an extended arm originally projected, but three of these are now missing. The surviving arm ends in a lozengiform terminal pierced to take a separate copper-alloy rivet; it extends the length of the chape to 37 mm. The front of the trapezoidal base is decorated with a central vertical groove running down from the notch, from which four to five oblique grooves run downwards and outwards. None of the lines join and all are made up either of individual punchmarks or by rocking the engraving tool. The reverse is not decorated, but has a large circular hole, perhaps for another rivet. It is very similar in size and shape to Winchester nos. 4030-1 (Biddle 1990, 1082-3), and the decoration on the front is particularly close to no. 4030. Both of these came from 13th-century contexts, but the chapes may be a little earlier.