EARLY MEDIEVAL MOUNT

550

Early Anglo-Saxon cast copper-alloy mount in the form of a bearded and moustached bust surmounted with horns. On the flat reverse are three integrally cast, round-sectioned, tapering, blunt spikes.The nose and eyes are in high relief and the hair, beard and moustache are picked out by closely spaced vertical, horizontal and diagonal grooves, and in part outlined by lines in relief. Both ends of the drooping moustache project beyond the outline of the face. The pointed-oval mouth and the non-bearded parts of the cheeks are emphasised by their plainness. The horns spring directly from the hair, and are decorated with four longitudinal grooves. Each horn ends in a bird's head with eyes in relief and with beaks which conjoin.Birds' head horns, springing from a helmet or headdress, can be seen on several other object types, for example in Design 1 (the dancing warriors) on the Sutton Hoo helmet; on a buckle from Finglesham (Bruce-Mitford 1974, pl.53b); on a silver-foil fragment from a barrow at Caenby, Lincs; on a die from Torslunda, Sweden; on the helmet from boat grave 7 at Valsgärde, Sweden (Bruce-Mitford 1978, 186-9, 205-20); and on a pin from Buckland Dover (Evison 1987, 84-5, fig.63). The man with horns may perhaps be identified with Odin, and the motif is considered to be a Swedish speciality (Bruce-Mitford 1974, 208; Evison 1987, 85). The above examples date to the late sixth and early seventh centuries as does this piece, although the motif was still in use in the Viking period (e.g. Graham-Campbell 1980, no.516).A mount from Attleborough (SMR 29895; NCM acc. no. 1994.133; published in Medieval Archaeology vol. 47 (2003) p. 208) is very close to this piece in shape and size, but the facial features are flat and the eyes sunken. The horns meet at the top and rather than bird's head terminals they have a small lobe projecting above the junction. On the reverse (rather than spikes) there is a lug with transverse hole and vertical slot, suggesting that it may have been a (removable) head of a pin. Another similar mount, from Soberton in Hampshire, can be seen on the PAS database at HAMP2432.The dimensions of this object were not given on the original record, but from the drawing published in Medieval Archaeology vol. 47 (2003) p. 208 it appears to be 37 mm long and 28 mm wide.