AESTEL

Description: Object made from gold and decorated with filigree. It appears to have originally been globular, or perhaps hemispherical with one face rounded and the rear face flat, but it has now been squashed so that the undecorated rear half has been pushed up into the hollow of the decorated face. One side of the object has been extended to form a long narrow point, probably originally a socket.

The filigree decoration consists of both beaded and plain wires. A beaded wire 0.75mm in diameter has been soldered along the join between the top and bottom halves. A plain unbeaded wire 0.5mm in diameter has been placed over this, at the edge opposite the socket, and runs up over the top half of the domed front until it meets a beaded wire 0.75mm in diameter which marks a junction between the socket and the body of the object. The line is then continued by a separate length of beaded wire 0.75mm in diameter which ends in a curled loop at the end of the socket.

A second piece of similar unbeaded wire is placed at right angles over the first to form a cross dividing the boss into four quarters. In each quarter are three or four spirals of unbeaded wire, most of which curl out from granules of gold. It is possible that other granules may be missing. One spiral rather carelessly spills across an arm of the cross, near the centre. The wire making up these spirals is curious; it has a cross-section like a capital I, narrow in the centre and broad at either end. In places these wires have occasional faint traces of beading.

The socket has a hole on either side, perhaps for a rivet to attach a separate shaft. The better-preserved hole is oval, c. 1.5 x 2 mm, and the socket may originally have been c. 3mm in diameter.

Dimensions: Length: 27.02 mm, width: 15.39 mm, thickness: 6.34 mm. Weight: 3.14 g

Discussion: This object fits well into a group of objects which are thought possibly to be pointers used while reading books, and are often referred to as 'aestels'. 'Aestels' have riveted sockets to hold a shaft, and flat undecorated reverses which would move smoothly across the vellum surface. The largest and most famous is the Alfred Jewel (length 62mm; Webster and Backhouse 1991, no. 260), but there are also smaller examples which compare well with the size of the "York Area" object; from Minster Lovell (length 31mm) and Bowleaze Cove (length 28mm; Webster and Backhouse 1991, nos. 258-9) and Warminster (now in the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum). A further example on the PAS database is SWYOR-C75C64 (2005 T82) (length 31mm). All of these date to the second half of the ninth century and are decorated with filigree ornament.

The ornament of the "York Area" example, with filigree spirals, can also be compared with that found on ball-headed pins of middle Anglo-Saxon date (for example DENO-A1EC74, DENO-A1EC74, and KENT-032814). An example of a globular terminal with spiral decoration and a riveted socket, which falls halfway between the 'aestel' and the 'pin' categories, is GLO-D79602 (2012T275).

Date: 9th century AD.