EARLY MEDIEVAL HOOKED TAG

800

An incomplete early-medieval silver hooked tag, a long triangle in shape with two circular attachment holes near the corners at the wider end. One of the upper corners is missing. The object tapers towards a break, as the bottom half of the object and the hook are missing. The plate is decorated on the front with engraving inlaid with niello, much of which survives, except by the lower break. The edge has well-spaced regular nicks; between each (from the image) there appears to be a short niello line. Within this is a continuous reserved silver border. The central panel is filled with Winchester-style symmetrical decoration of acanthus leaves around a central stem which springs from between the attachment holes. The reverse is undecorated. The remaining fragment of the object is in reasonable condition, although there is some tarnish down the right-hand side. The object weighs 1.0g and measures 17.39mm in length and 14.74mm in width.This hooked tag fits well into a tradition of similar niello-inlaid hooked tags with a long triangular shape; SOMDOR1161 (published in Read 2008, no. 103), WILT-7520D2 and WILT-477136. All of these have an animal head at the junction of hook and plate and are therefore of Read's Early-Medieval Class C; all are also made from copper alloy.Deeply engraved silver with niello inlay is found most commonly on hooked tags and strap-ends broadly dating to the 9th century. The symmetrical decoration of acanthus leaves continues in use beyond the 9th century, in Winchester-style art of the 10th or early 11th century, but it seems most likely that this hooked tag belongs to the 9th.