MEDIEVAL STRAP FITTING

1300

One plate from a copper-alloy composite belt fitting, probably a strap-end but possibly alternatively a buckle. All edges are broken, but the plate is still basically rectangular. In one corner a separate copper-alloy rivet survives. There is grooved decoration on one face; a single-line border survives along one long edge, and the plate is divided into two panels by a double transverse groove. Each panel has an engraved motif which looks like an hourglass; two lines lead away from the double transverse groove in a convex curve towards a central waist, then curve outwards again in mirror-image. The more complete of the two motifs appears to end close to the rivet in an incurved line rather than another transverse groove, and this line is cut through by an off-centre nick which may be the end of a 'grooved aperture'. There are traces of rocker-arm engraving around the hour-glass motifs. The surviving dimensions are 36 x 17.5 mm.