SWORD

An Early-Medieval silver-gilt sword-ring. c. AD 410 - c. AD 600). Outer diameter of free running ring: 15.0mm; outer diameter of rivet ring head: 14.2mm; overall weight: 7.71g. Treasure case no. 2006 T544. The fitting consists of a free running ring interlocking with an almost closed-up ring head of a "rivet" for attachment to one of the guards of a sword hilt. The free ring, with an outer diameter of 15.0mm, has a tooled decoration within a narrow median groove. Flattened areas around the girth may be the result of hammering, or perhaps, accidental damage in antiquity. Each flat side of the ring is decorated with two lines of circumferential raised triangle-shaped motifs. The head of the closed-up ring, with an outer diameter of 14.2mm, has tooled decoration around the girth which is similar to that of the free ring. At each end of the closed-up ring is a stub, the remains of a rivet shaft or spike. There are traces of gilding within the tooled girth of both rings. The artefact is in good condition but is worn, particularly on the top of the closed-up ring where the tooled decoration is lost. The ring would have been mounted on a sword hilt and prominently displayed. It is thought that sword-rings of this type may have been given by kings and princes to members of their retinues as a reward for military service, possibly symbolising both the wearer's bond of loyalty to his lord and his high status or office. Fittings of this type exemplify the earliest stage in the development of Germanic ring-swords, belonging to Evison's type 1a, and may have been attached either underneath the lower guard, as on a sword from Snartemo, grave 5, Norway, or on top of the upper guard next to the pommel, which soon became the usual position. The Brighstone fitting is of similar form to one on an early Anglo-Saxon sword from Faversham, Kent, although the exact position of mounting on the latter is uncertain (V. I. Evison, 'The Dover ring-sword and other sword rings and beads', Archaeologia 101 (1967), pp. 63-103, at pp. 68 and 73, fig. 3h-j; E. Behmer, 1939 , Das zweischneidige Schwert der germanischen Völkerwanderungszeit, Stockholm, pl. 29). The Snartemo sword is dated to around AD 500, while the cocked-hat pommel of the Faversham sword belongs to Menghin's Brighthampton-Ciply type, dating from the end of the 5th century until late in the 6th (W. Menghin, Das Schwert im Frühen Mittelalter, Stuttgart (1983), pp. 309-11, map 2). This type of pommel is widespread in southern England, northern France, Germany and Scandinavia and archaeological evidence of close connections between Kent and the Isle of Wight in the 5th-6th centuries is well documented".