Has anyone found one of these in Denmark? It’s a copper-alloy stirrup-strap mount depicting a lion. Sometimes they face left or right, and sometimes they are openwork, or not. Quite a few have been found in England (almost 70 on the PAS database of this type), but I only know about 3 from Denmark.
John Naylor (Finds Adviser) and myself are currently interested in hooked-tags, of which more than 400 have been recorded by the PAS since 1997: they also feature quite a bit in a book recently published by Brian Read - Hooked-Clasps and Eyes (Portcullis Publishing, 2008). They are mostly made of copper-alloy, though silver ones were also made.
Although these finds are quite common in England, relatively few have been found (to date) in Denmark (see map below), and we would very much like to know about anymore of them not yet submitted to the Nationalmuseet. If you have found one of these objects (that normally have a triangular or circular plate) please email me: mlewis@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk.
NB: these finds shouldn’t be confused with post-medieval dress-hooks/hooked clasp, which are normally more ornate.
In December 2010 Dr Michael Lewis (Deputy Head, Department of Portable Antiquities & Treasure) spent a week at the Nationalmuseet (Copenhagen) learning about Danefae, meeting curators and finders, and researching the Nationalmuseet’s finds database.
Although the Treasure laws in Denmark are different to those in England and Wales, our counties are unique in (much of) Europe, given that metal-detecting is legal and detector finds are recorded to advance archaeological knowlege; in England/Wales these finds are made publically available on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database, whilst in Denmark they are recorded by the Nationalmusset.
It is therefore apparent that there is great potential to examine these datasets of public finds side-by-side to see whether the finds found in England and Wales are similar to those in Denmark, and what those artefact types and their distribution might tell us about the links between our countries in the past.
Consequently this blog will be asking YOU to help answer some of the questions WE have regarding artefacts YOU may have found…
The content contained within the Blog's pages do not represent an official position from any of the organisations associated with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. They are solely those of the post's author.
