EARLY MEDIEVAL ASSEMBLAGE

Unknown artist

Sword pommel cap: Pommel cap made from thin gold sheet over a probable copper-alloy (or possibly iron) base. The sloping shoulders of the pommel are straight (or very slightly concave) but the apex is convex and curved. The filigree work is set on flat triangular backplates, with other parts of the pommel covered with separate pieces of thin gold sheet. One face of the pommel cap has a central lozenge-shaped setting, now empty. A fragment of corroded iron tang projects from the underside of the pommel. Length of pommel 49.8mm, height c. 13mm, thickness 8.7mm, weight 19.6g.The face with the setting, The filigree consists of paired rope twists (of two unbeaded wires each) forming the border all around the triangular face of the pommel, and drawing lines between the corners of the pommel and the corners of the lozenge-shaped setting. The pairing is done so that the two strands together resemble a plait or herring-bone pattern. This divides the face into four fields, each with similar decoration. A beaded wire runs into the long narrow corner of three of the fields, and a fourth wire (in the NW corner, imagining it as a compass) may have been lost. These wires end at lines of granules - four in three of the fields and five in the fourth (the SW corner). The granules grow in size towards the centre, and all but the four biggest, in the centre, are collared with beaded wire. Under the miscroscope, the beaded wire appears very amateurishly made, with the beads not formed properly. The largest granules are surrounded by an incomplete collar of two-ply rope-twist which then goes on to flare into what looks like an open beak, with a line of similar rope-twist in between, extending to look a little like a tongue. There is considerable wear on the paired rope-twists at the top.The lozenge-shaped setting is now empty, but probably originally contained a garnet. It is surrounded by more neatly made beaded wire, and an upstanding collar made from gold strip. The backplate of the setting has no foil surviving; there is a hole in the centre for a corroded ?iron rivet. The backplate is not clearly made from gold; it may be silver, or may have some solder or backing paste adhering.Below the filigree panel is a line of thicker rope-twist, also unbeaded, in a different material, not gold. This may be part of a base-silver or copper-alloy core, perhaps cast rather than made from individual wires, but this cannot be certainly established without analysis.The other face, Below the filigree panel is a line of cabling with soft contours. By comparison with the other face, it is probably made up from a thick rope-twist which has been covered with gold sheet.The lower border of the filigree panel is made from finely beaded wire. Running upwards from this are five panels of vertical filigree forming a 'filigree carpet'. The central panel consists of four rope-twists with their cabling all running the same way, not opposed to make imitation plaits, and with a beaded border on one side (it is quite possible that a border on the other side has been lost, although this would make the spacing rather uneven).The flanking panels are slightly different to each other; on the left-hand side (as you look at it) are five strands of two-ply unbeaded rope-twist, the inner two set opposing each other to make a herring-bone plait and the outer three running the same way. The right-hand panel is more conventional, made up of a pair of rope-twists opposed to make a plait, and a beaded wire on either side.The outer panels have two pairs of opposed rope-twists on the left, and two opposed pairs and an extra single rope-twist on the right. Right next to the outer vertical panels is a circular collar which presumably originally held a granule; on the left the collar is made from beaded wire and on the right it is made from loose rope-twist.The flanking panels are short, as the space above them is taken up by two surviving granules which are partly encircled by lengths of beaded wire. These then continue up and flare out again to resemble animals' heads. The right-hand one seems to have two loose pieces of fine plain wire within the jaws. The jaws each hold a circular collar of beaded wire which encircle rivets which appear to be of iron or copper alloy (the material cannot be established through visual examination).The rivets and their collars interrupt a wide carpet of rope-twist with the individual strands alternating in direction to form a herring-bone pattern. Between the rivets there are eight strands and to either side there are six strands. The left-hand rivet interrupts the carpet entirely, but one strand runs across the top of the right-hand rivet. The six strands run right down to the corners of the pommel and the space between them and the empty collar is filled on each side with three further rope-twist strands.There are two more copper-alloy or iron rivets at the corners of the filigree panels which appear to attach them to the iron pommel. Corrosion from these may mask filigree collars. There are apparently five rivets in all, one at either end and two towards the top, all of which may pass right through the iron as they are visible on both faces. There is another in the empty setting which is not visible on the other face.Top and underside, The top of the pommel appears to be made from thin gold sheet which runs down behind the filigree panels. There are tears in it and it has been lifted in places by iron corrosion. The underside of the pommel has some copper alloy staining visible.Comparanda, The pommel can be compared to several seventh-century examples in the Staffordshire Hoard (StH). In overall shape it is relatively low, making it perhaps sit between the earlier concave-sided 'cocked-hat' pommels (examples of this type include WILT-B5EE27, 2010 T564; ESS-27D367, 2004 T37; LIN-871CD5, 2003 T258) and the low curved pommel StH 294, which is of a hitherto unknown type (Fischer and Soulat 2010).The single central setting on one face only is comparable to several pommels with filigree decoration, such as StH 294 and the detached fragment StH136. Vertical lines of filigree dividing the pommel into blocks are found on several caps from the Staffordshire Hoard (e.g. StH 669) but usually important in the design is a line marking off the ends, which have vertical rivets that hold the pommel onto the upper guard. The Middleham pommel does not have these vertical rivets and its construction is peculiar; even StH 294, in many ways a close parallel, has space at either end for pairs of vertical rivets to secure the pommel to the upper guard.The filigree design conforms to the usual early Anglo-Saxon conventions but has a few oddities. It is mostly made up of made up of circles and straight lines, with no scroll patterns and no animal interlace. The use of rope-twist to draw animal heads (if this is what they are) is unusual, possibly arguing instead that they are purely geometric. Geometric shapes are drawn in rope-twist on the Acklam pendant (BM P&E 1871,12-7,1), also from Yorkshire. It is possible that some of the Middleham pommel's features may conform to regional patterns; the pommel from Aldbrough (East Yorkshire) has (beaded-wire) rope-twist borders to its central decorative panels. The pommel is difficult to date precisely within the seventh century.Thanks are due to Niamh Whitfield for her advice on the filigree decoration.Sword (not including detached sword pommel cap): The iron sword has a tang c. 100mm long, narrowing to a broken rounded point which does not join to the broken part of the tang below the pommel. The blade looks well preserved in its overall shape, but the X-ray of the sword blade shows its metal to be highly corroded; traces of probable pattern-welding can be seen on the X-ray, characteristic of an early Anglo-Saxon date. The sword is now in two pieces, the longer (with tang) 625mm long and the shorter 265mm long. The blade ends in a long V-shaped point. Surviving total length 890mm, maximum width 50mm, thickness 6mm.Coin: Anglo-Saxon gold shilling, 'York' group. Obverse: facing figure with bust represented by pattern of intersecting lines. Reverse: inscription around cross patteé. Gareth Williams dates this coin to c. 625-640 AD.Spearhead: Iron spearhead in very corroded condition. Surviving length 474mm, socket 95 mm long. The maximum blade width is 44mm, but so much of the edge has been lost that it is uncertain exactly where the widest part originally was. There is a slight carination along the centre of the blade and also possibly a slight collar (formed by two grooves and a moulding) at the junction of blade and socket. Thickness of blade 6.5-7.5mm, diameter of socket 21mm. The split in the socket is now extremely narrow (a maximum of 2mm wide), and some of the split may be obscured by corrosion. The split extends up the socket for approximately 35mm. The socket is packed full of soil and some possible wood remains.Because so much of the edge has been lost, it is not possible to assign a Swanton type for this spearhead with confidence, but its blade length and relatively short socket indicates that it should be a C3 or C4, or an E3, E4 or G2. These long spearheads were all in use in the seventh century AD.Knife: Iron knife with wedge-shaped cross-section to the blade, now very corroded. From the X-ray, the knife looks like a classic early Anglo-Saxon type, with a whittle-tang joining the blade at the top and forming a straight back before both back and cutting edge curve to the point. Now with a detached fragment which does not clearly join, the larger fragment measures c. 70mm long and the best-preserved part of the blade is c. 15mm wide. This is a small knife which could perhaps be classed as a Buckland Dover type 1 (Evison 1987, 113-14); they are found throughout the early Anglo-Saxon period.Hanging bowl:Ring from hanging bowl: Copper-alloy ring, external diameter varying between 32.7 and 33.2mm. Internally worn, particularly at two places (at 12 o'clock and 5 o'clock). The cross-section of the ring is slightly oval with a carination around the outside; it measures 5.6 x 6.8mm where it appears least worn, but 4.6 x 5.2mm where most worn. The patina is a pale greyish green. Weight 14.3g.Hooked escutcheon from hanging bowl (a): Copper-alloy openwork escutcheon, made in one piece with the hook. The escutcheon is slightly convex, with a polished outer face and a rougher inner face with lumps adhering, presumably of solder. The inner face is very slightly more greyish in appearance than the outer face, also presumably due to the presence of solder. There are three cracks, one recently (and crudely) repaired.The escutcheon is roughly U-shaped, in the form of a pair of animal heads. The curved necks join at the base, and the heads at the top have angled brows below which are ring-and-dot eyes. The left-hand eye is worn away at the top. The open, curled-back jaws give the effect of a smile to the animals. The junction of the necks also joins a central stem which has two tapering and curling branches forming a heart shape in the centre; the stem continues upwards to meet the lower jaw, then expands to curve around the base of the hook and continues to meet the upper jaw. The upper jaw of the left-hand animal is cracked, as is the central stem just above the heart, and the neck of the right-hand animal which has been repaired. The escutcheon is a maximum of 59.8mm wide and is 1.3-2.0mm thick at the edge.The hook is in the shape of an animal head. It begins with a chunky circular drum-like moulding at the base, from which the neck springs, initially is V-shaped in cross-section but quickly expanding to a rectangular cross-section. There are two very faint worn grooves along the back of the neck. The head begins with two moulded ears which are emphasised by pairs of broad oblique grooves in V-shapes on the top of the head, and finer double grooves on the side. In front of the double grooves are ring-and-dot eyes. Beneath the front of the eyes is a recess forming a flat chin; this has a slightly greyer appearance than the rest of the metal and is where the hook would have been soldered to the flat rim of the bowl. The head dips down to form a moulded snout, emphasised by a further pair of grooves on each side; in front of these are V-shaped grooves forming a schematic representation of an open mouth.Maximum width of head/hook, 6.4mm. Total length of escutcheon, 78.4mm. Weight of escutcheon 41.6gHooked escutcheon from a hanging bowl (b): The second copper-alloy openwork escutcheon is virtually identical to the other two and must have come from a single hanging bowl. Unlike the other two the points of the central decoration meet the central stem of the escutcheon forming two closed circles. There is also a small oblong depression on one side of the animals face between the eye and the mouth decoration.Maximum width of head/hook, 6.3 mm. Total length of escutcheon, 78.5 mm. Weight of escutcheon 41.5 g. The escutcheon is a maximum of 60.5 mm wide and is 1.5-2.0mm thick at the edge.Hooked escutcheon from a hanging bowl (c):The third copper-alloy openwork escutcheon differs from the other two in that the snout of the animal which forms the hook is worn and chipped with a rough edge. On either side of the hook, between the edge of the escutcheon and the triangular shaped cut-out area, is a ring-and-dot motif. One of these ring-and-dot designs has mostly worn away. It is possible there could be one more of these hooked escutcheons from the same assemblage which is as yet undiscovered or unreported, though a complete copper-alloy hanging bowl from Loveden Hill, Lincolnshire was composed of just three escutcheons arranged at 120° intervals around the rim of the bowl (Hinton 2005, 59).Maximum width of head/hook, 6.6 mm. Total length of escutcheon, 78.3 mm. Weight of escutcheon 41.0 g. The escutcheon is a maximum of 60.1 mm wide and is 1.4-2.1mm thick at the edge.Long copper-alloy object (unreported): Images of a fourth object show a flat copper-alloy strip with stress to the metal in the centre suggesting that it has at some time been bent and straightened out. The object is waisted in the centre, with long edges gently curving to two matching triangular ends. One end has a rectilinear extension, perhaps now broken. There appear to be no rivets or other means of attachment, and there is no obvious solder on either of the two faces, which appear to be of similar colours. The length appears to be c. 150mm.The function and date of this object is unclear. It is similar in shape to horse-harness mounts, but is much larger and lacks any rivets or other means of attachment. It is not like any surviving hanging-bowl appliqué (Bruce-Mitford 2005, 17) and also not like the flat handles from seventh-century skillets (handled bowls) which have straight or concave edges ending in circular terminals. There are many difficult-to-identify objects found in early Anglo-Saxon graves, however, and without handling it, an early Anglo-Saxon date cannot be ruled out.Comparanda for the hanging-bowl escutcheons: There is no precise parallel to the large openwork escutcheons in the shape of a pair of open-jawed animals, either in Bruce-Mitford's corpus (2005) or on the PAS database.The large size and bold openwork design of the Middleham escutcheons is somewhat similar to the mounts with openwork enamelled decoration based on two peltas and a lozenge found at Hildersham and at Baginton (Bruce-Mitford 2005, nos. 13 and 93). Bruce-Mitford dates the manufacture of these bowls to the sixth century AD, but work on the grave contexts of hanging bowls has shown that they were not deposited as grave-goods until the very late sixth or seventh centuries (Brenan 1991; Geake 1999).