UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT

A Late Early-Medieval (c.900-1100) copper alloy openwork unidentified object, decorated in the 'Winchester style'.
The main body of the object is triangular in shape and copper alloy, c.6mm thick, tapering from 17.04mm wide at one end to 9.88mm at the other. It is openwork and decorated on both faces with a central stem, bifurcating at the narrower end with lobe-ended tendrils extending beside it, dropping from the wider end. The area between the two faces is filled with iron corrosion. The decoration on one face is largely obscured by this but on the other three tendrils are visible either side of the central stem. From the wider end, the top pair curl outwards and upwards, the middle pair expand into an oval leaf and the bottom pair curl inwards to the stem.
At the wider end two possible fleur-de-lis extend from the centre of a base, extending outwards, their innermost leaves reaching upwards and inwards to touch each other, forming an openwork heart-shape between them, a possible loop. Between the lower leaves and the base are two more irregular openwork areas. This 'loop' terminal measures 19.50x16.95x4.03mm, the base standing 2.5mm high. A groove between this terminal and the main body has traces of iron corrosion leeching from it.
From the narrow end of the main body is a triangular terminal, possibly zoomorphic or foliate, described by Hinton (1990) as a flower sprouting from the central stem decoration of the body. It is 9.72x10.52x7.91mm thick with a central slot c.2mm wide and 6.5mm deep, which carries traces of iron corrosion within it.
The copper alloy is worn and missing all its original patina, but the object appears complete and unbroken. Of the few other examples of this object type known, this appears to be the most complete example. SUR-6D7060 consists of the incomplete main body section only and is described as a possible scabbard terminal decorated in the Winchester style and so dated c.900-1020. An example excavated in Winchester (Hinton, D; 1990, Buckles and other clothes fittings in Object and Economy in Medieval Winchester, p.499-500, no.1061), missing the openwork 'loop' at the wider end, is described as a strap-end or chape. IOW-691755 is also the incomplete main body section only, with an abraded tip. More recently research by Rob Webley on SOM-290222 defines these as of an unidentified use. The presence of the openwork 'loop' on this example precludes the use of this object type as a chape; the apparently detachable looped terminal suggests a strap fitting unlikely. The iron section, presumably a sheet, was possibly then attached to the loop section.
See also Webley and Burnett in Medieval Archaeology 2013, p. 278; Fig. 9a. This object was included in Bob Green's piece in the Searcher (no. 389, January 2018), p. 54; no. 1.

It measures 57.51x19.49x7.90mm and weighs 17.34g.