Rights Holder: Somerset County Council
CC License:
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Unique ID: SOM-977D0B
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Early Medieval cast copper alloy pendant with elaborate Style I interlace designs dating to c. AD 475-600. The pendant is roughly D-shaped with a semi-circular upper edge and an irregular but broadly straight lower edge. (It is described below with the loop consistantly at the top although details of the design are perhaps better seen when it is looked down at, from the wearers perspective, placing the loop at the base.) A small area, c.5% is missing to a break on the left lower edge, the break is worn. The front is slightly convex and the back slightly concave. The back is plain apart from a broadly triangular integrally cast raised area adjacent to the centre of the upper edge of the pendant, and the loop. This raised area is slightly lopsided with a straight lower edge and left side and curved right edge and upper edge and thickens towards the top. There is the remains of a transverse suspension loop at the centre of the upper edge. The loop is broken across the hole but appeared to be circular or oval with a circular central hole and to project slightly forward form the front of the pendant and be broadly continuous with the thickened area on the back.
The front is deepely carved with a design of two confronting beasts, their eyes in the lower corners within head frames, their curled back gaping jaws meeting in the centre of the lower section and their bodies curving over their jaws to form the curved upper edge of the pendant meeting at a raised line running down the centre from below the loop. The eye of the animal on the left is less clear due to corrosion but the curled over crest is clearer than on the animal on the right. The upper jaws are slightly different, that on the right is a double line in the lower part and that on the left is thicker with an indent at the base. The curled over jaws are also reminiscent of the eyes, nose and mostached face of a en-face human mask, possibly with the bodies representing a helmet.
Within each curved body of the larger animals is a smaller interlaced animal, possibly birds. The details are worn and possibly confused but each animal has a square head frame with an eye and crest adjacent to the centre line. The animal on the left has a double stranded body behind the head then an L shaped leg, starting vertically across the body and ending in a three toed food below it. The rest of the animal is lost to the break. A double stranded body can also be made out on the animal on the right although not a coherent whole for the animal. Most of the raised lines forming the larger and smaller beasts are V-shaped with V-shaped valleys between them apart from broader raised areas on the larger beasts' heads and recessed areas around their jaws.
The pendant is now 38.1mm across, 29.8mm tall excluding the loop, 33.0mm including it, 1.9mm thick at the lower edge, 4.1mm at the upper including the raised section and 6.0mm at the loop. It weighs 10.41 grams.
The design of large confronting animals with curled back jaws and smaller animals within their bodies is very similar to that found on contemporary bell shaped pendants such as SOMDOR-A8DD87 on this database. In this case rather than the jaws flanking a triangular base they simply meet, giving a plainer base. A similar arrangement is perhaps seen in a pendant from Woodeaton, Oxfordshire, which has an addition of a face mask below the loop and a small triangular cell between the jaws of the larger animals (MacGregor and Bolick 1993:163, no.25.9). The raised section on the back is reminiscent of the curved over and riveted loop on SOMDOR-A8DD87, although not directly paralleled on other examples.
The fact the larger animals are clearer with pendant orientated with the loop at the bottom and the smaller animals with it at the top is typical of the ambiguity seen in Style I designs. The three toed animals with narrow interlacing bodies and head frames around the separate raised eye pellets as well as the general angularity of the design with thin interlace are all typical of this style. The suggestion that the design may also be intended to suggest at a helmeted face mask is perhaps supported by pendants such as LIN-ACD875 with this design and could make sense of the differing upper jaws of the larger animals with would be designed to make the trapezoid nose. In general the degraded nature of the design may reflect a later 6th century date or the marginal area (for this art style) the pendant was lost, and presumably used, in.
Notes:
A drawing is in preparation and the sketch may aid identification in the meantime.
This is a find of note and has been designated: County / local importance
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Early
Period from: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 470
Date to: Circa AD 600
Quantity: 1
Length: 33 mm
Width: 38.1 mm
Thickness: 6 mm
Weight: 10.41 g
This information is restricted for your access level.
Other reference: SCC receipt 16728
Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Incomplete
Surface Treatment: Gilded
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 10 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MacGregor, A. and Bolick, E. | 1993 | A summary catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon collections (non-ferrous metals), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford | Oxford | Tempvs Reparatum |