EARLY MEDIEVAL STRAP FITTING

1000

Incomplete Late Saxon mount from belt or harness, trefoil plate broken across one of four perforations (end of central foil missing), and attached integral ring (plate 3mm thick, ring 3.5mm thick). Plate has worn traces of engraving. Surviving length 30mm. Width/diam 17mm.Similar mounts have been discovered in Denmark, Norway and England. All are approx. the same size. Some of these finds have three rivet holes, others only two. The English finds are from Upton with Fishley, Norfolk (HER 29671), Ketsby in North Lincolnshire, Northampton and two from South-West Dorset illustrated in Read Metal Artefacts of Antiquity (Langport, 2001), nos.368-9 and described as being 'plausibly c.16th century'. The example from Northampton appears in James Graham-Campbell's article 'Anglo-Scandinavian Equestrian Equipment in Eleventh-Century England' Anglo-Norman Studies XIV. Proceedings of the Battle Conference, 1991 (1992), 77-89.The mounts are very similar in material, technique and ornament to the strap mounts and stirrup fittings of the 11th and early 12th century. An 11th century date would fit with a late furnished burial from Sweden containing three of these mounts. It is possible that the mount is a fitting from a belt or strap, the opposite end of which would be tied to the ring. See a letter from Anne Pedersen in the file for Upton with Fishley, Norfolk (HER 29671).