Rights Holder: Birmingham Museums Trust
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Unique ID: WMID-E4F0C5
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published
A complete gilded copper alloy zoomorphic mount, of Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) dating (6th Century AD).
The cast copper-alloy, openwork mount is in the form of a stylised bird of prey, shown in profile, crouched over and gripping a serpent. It dates to the early Anglo-Saxon period. The eyeless head and beak, claw, lappet wing and serpent are gilded. For contrast, the neck/body and fantail are silvered (?tinned). It belongs to a small group of bird fittings, similarly decorated in bichrome (gold and silver) fashion, from Kent and East Anglia. Some have been found in graves as shield-mounts, though it is possible smaller examples (like this one, found unassociated) were lost from horse-harness or belts (Dickinson 2005; Dickinson et al. 2011); the three rivets on the reverse have a relatively short length (2.8mm, incl. the thickness of the mount), closer to that of fittings for leather (rather than mounts for thicker leather and wood shield-boards). Parallels for the snake form, its body an interlacing band with a lozengic head, occur on bird mounts from Eriswell (RAF Lakenheath: ERL104) and Sutton Hoo (Tranmer House), both in Suffolk. The latter is an early example of Salin's Style II animal art (1904), and has been dated to the second half of the 6th century (Dickinson 2005, 139-140). The mount in this case demonstrates a Style II trait also - the Y-shaped groove dividing the curved beak. This has been identified as a characteristic of the Style II of East Anglia (centred on Sutton Hoo: see Speake 1980), and it is possible, therefore, given the aforementioned links also, the piece was made in that region, around the same date as the related Sutton Hoo example.
It measures 16.2 mm in length, 11.2 mm wide and 2.8 mm thick. It weighs 0.9 g.
The mount is a dark green colour, with an even surface patina. Gilding is still present in the recesses of the design.
References:
Dickinson, T. M. 2005. 'Symbols of Protection: The Significance of Animal-ornamented Shields in Early Anglo-Saxon England', Medieval Archaeolology 49: 109-163
Dickinson, T. M., Fern, C. and Richardson, A. 2011 'Early Anglo-Saxon Eastry: Archaeological Evidence for the Beginnings of a District Centre in the Kingdom of Kent', Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 17: 1-86
Salin, B. 1904. Die Altgermanische Thierornamentik (Stockholm)
Speake, G. 1980. Anglo-Saxon animal art and its Germanic background (Oxford)
Notes:
Thanks are extended to Chris Fern (Fern Archaeology) and Kevin Leahy (PAS Finds Advisor for Post Roman artefacts) for their help in identifying and classifying this mount.
This is a find of note and has been designated: County / local importance
Class: zoomorphic
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Early
Period from: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod to: Early
Period to: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 500
Date to: Circa AD 600
Quantity: 1
Length: 16.2 mm
Width: 11.2 mm
Thickness: 2.8 mm
Weight: 0.9 g
Date(s) of discovery: Sunday 25th August 2013
This object was found at Digging Up The Past - Upper Dean, Beds
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Primary material: Copper alloy
Decoration style: Zoomorphic
Completeness: Complete
Surface Treatment: Gilded
4 Figure: TL0668
Four figure Latitude: 52.29990539
Four figure longitude: -0.44695872
1:25K map: TL0668
1:10K map: TL06NE
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 10 metre square.
No references cited so far.