HARNESS PENDANT

Fragment of an Early Anglo-Saxon gilded copper-alloy pendant, probably from horse harness, with Style I decoration, c. AD 530-560. The pendant was presumably circular although only about one-fifth now survives. The remaining part has old breaks on three sides and a complete curved upper edge from which projects a broken transverse suspension loop. The loop is rectangular in cross-section, level with the front of the pendant but projecting from the back and above the edge. The curved upper edge of the loop is worn and broken through. The back is otherwise undecorated.

The front is decorated with relief Style I decoration and gilded. In what it is suggested is the centre are three concentric raised rings with traces of red enamel in the central cell. The outer of the three rings is decorated with multiple, regularly spaced, transverse grooves creating a pelleted effect.

The outer edge of the pendant is a raised plain line, inside which is a border with chip-carved relief decoration, the details of which are unclear, then a pelleted inner line border. A triangular cell runs between the pendant's centre, where the point breaks the outer of the three rings, to the outer edge of the pendant adjacent to the suspension loop where it cuts through the inner two borders. This cell has a raised outer edge and also contains traces of red enamel.

In the extant sections to either side of the triangular cell, between the central rings and the borders around the edge, are traces of Style I relief animals. Too little remains to interpret the form of the animals with confidence, but they appear to be in profile and broadly symmetrical. Both have three toed feet running from the broken edge to end near the corner between the triangular cell and border. Above each foot is a small curved bar which runs from the centre of the field, and follows the curve of the toes to terminate beyond them, between the feet and the triangular cell. Above these curved bars are further broadly L-shaped bars which follow the circumference of the outermost central ring from a point adjacent to the triangular cell before turning through ninety degrees (on one side of the triangular cell, less on the other) to abut both the curved bar's terminal and the top of the foot. One could speculate that these bars taken together represent gaping jaws above the feet, though so little of the design survives such speculation is very tentative.

The piece is 22.7mm long, 27.5mm including the loop, 19.3mm wide, 2.8mm thick excluding the loop and 7.0mm thick including it; it weighs 4.98g.

The design appears to echo garnet-inlaid 'keystone' brooches (also called 'Kentish' brooches) dating to c.AD 530-560, but slightly larger, simpler and using enamel rather than garnet. Triangular cells are known from several classes of keystone brooch, such as Avent's Class 1.2, Class 2.5 and 2.6.

All of these classes may have three or four cells, and in principle either is also possible for this pendant. The outer of the three central rings is broken only where the remaining cell crosses it, however, suggesting there were not multiple cells of the same form and size, as is common on the brooches (unless any other cells may have been shorter and not interrupted the ring in the same way).

The way the loop projects from the back but not the front is unlike most Early Anglo-Saxon jewellery pendants, which tend to have tubular loops projecting forward as well as back. The robustness of the pendant and its comparative simplicity also suggest it may have been a harness pendant.

Compare other harness pendants of this period, such as the well-known bell-shaped group (e.g. SOMDOR-A8DD87, SUR-6FBE75 and KENT-CC59C7, the last with a garnet setting) and axe-shaped group (e.g. SOMDOR-1440D6 and SF-552FD2, both with loops set on the reverse). There are also more individualistic pendant designs, some perhaps based on brooches, such as SUSS-9AFD98.

Also compare similar keystone brooches on the PAS database, some with garnet and some with glass settings; enamel is unusual. There are several with triangular settings, e.g. KENT-9BD357, WILT-F561A1, HAMP-9B6151. BERK-6DD561, BUC-4B3412.