EARLY MEDIEVAL STRAP END

Unknown artist

Description: Silver strap-end with convex sides and zoomorphic terminal. The attachment end is now bent and incomplete, but curved traces of a fan-shaped motif survive. The main panel of decoration is broadly rectangular, and is filled with engraving around a reserved Trewhiddle-style animal in profile showing the left side of its body. The animal is perhaps best viewed with the terminal downwards. The body can then be seen filling the lower half of the field, with rounded belly, triangular hip, and rear leg ending in a rounded foot; a small foreleg emerges from a more rectangular shoulder, and what may be the tail curls under the rear leg to separate the two feet and end beneath the belly. A pair of nicks separates the body from the long neck, which is decorated with a central longitudinal groove. The neck interlaces around to fill the upper half of the field; details are hard to see due to the damage to the attachment end, but the neck ends in an upside-down, bent-back head in the centre of the left-hand side, with open jaws, dot eye and round ear.The edges of the strap-end are decorated with ladder pattern which runs the length of the main panel but stop at the terminal, which is in the shape of a very stylised animal head. The snout is rectilinear, and possibly incomplete; an oval eye can just be seen to either side, outlined by engraved lines, with a triangular field (perhaps originally with relief decoration) in between. Above the eyes is a transverse groove, separating them from the large oval ears with a curved recess in the centre; there is a sub-rectangular interlaced motif in relief between the ears.Traces of a dark material, probably niello, are visible in the engraving of the main field and the ladder pattern. The terminal may also originally have been inlaid with niello, although none is now visible.The reverse is undecorated and appears to have a rough surface with some iron corrosion, perhaps resulting from contact with an iron object in the ground. There appears to be a slight recess in the centre, behind the main panel of decoration.Dimensions: Length c. 40mm, width c. 15mm.Discussion: This strap-end fits well into Thomas's Class A, Type 1, a series of relatively common 9th-century strap-ends decorated in Trewhiddle style (Thomas 2003, 2-3). There is a wide range of motifs possible within the Trewhiddle style, and the long interlacing neck and more rounded body of the animal can be paralleled on GLO-DE1054, a possible strap-end fragment from South Gloucestershire.Date: 9th century AD.Conclusion: In terms of age and precious metal content, this object fulfils the criteria for treasure according to the Treasure Act 1996.Helen GeakeFinds Adviser to the Portable Antiquities Scheme