S-shaped Fasteners (2001 guide)

Created on by Thomas Flynn
Last edited on by Robert Webley

Please note that this guide has not been fundamentally changed from the original print version of the Finds Recording Guide (Geake 2001), written when the database contained just 8,800 non-numismatic records.

Introduction

These are thought to have been used to fasten belts. State whether the decoration is only on one face, or continues all around the object.

PAS object type to be used

Use STRAP FITTING

PAS object classification to use

Add ‘S shaped fastener’ to the Classification field

Date

They seem at the moment to date from the late 16th and 17th centuries (Read 2008, 230; nos 822, 823), and there seems to be a gap between them and the modern S-shaped ‘snake-belt’ fastener (Read 2008, 230-231; nos 825, 826). An example of the latter is SUR-D53841, comparable with a fastener found at the site of the wreck of the Dunbar (1857), near Sydney.

Examples

Post-medieval S-shaped fasteners: c. 16th-17th-century example (left, DUR-1A6EB4); c. 18th-20th-century example (right, IOW-859981). Copyright: Durham County Council; The Portable Antiquities Scheme; CC-BY-SA licence)
Post-medieval S-shaped fasteners: c. 16th-17th-century example (left, DUR-1A6EB4); c. 18th-20th-century example (right, IOW-859981). Copyright: Durham County Council; The Portable Antiquities Scheme; CC-BY-SA licence)

Search for all examples of S-shaped fasteners

Key references

Read 2008