MOUNT

A cast copper-alloy Roman mount or strap end probably dating from the 4th-5th century AD.

A broadly D-shaped object in the form of a pair of three-dimensional confronted or enface dolphins, both with their mouths open forming lozenge shaped openwork between their beaks. Both dolphins have a raised crest delineated by short grooves. The eyes are worn. The tail of the dolphins are both decorated with incised lines on both sides. The dolphins sit on a rolled and open-ended loop or tube carrying incised diagonal grooves in two V-shaped patterns, underneath each dolphin. There is a small gap that runs the width of the tube measuring c.1.08 mm in width. Both ends of the loop/tube carry some damage and the dolphins bodies have been smoothed with wear (and/or use) over time. The tube is partially filled with soil.

Measurements: Height: 37.12 mm; Width: 41.48 mm; Thickness (head): 6.57 and (rolled tube): 7.84 mm; Weight: 28.25g

Discussion

This object is unusual and a cursory search on the PAS database has revealed no parallels to the author. The confronted dolphin design is very similar in style to the Hawkes and Dunning Type IA or IIB buckles dated to the late 4th-5th century (c.AD 350-450). The rolled loop parallels a decorative openwork bronze plate with an open-ended tube across the wider end to take leather or cloth, which may have held together the end of a military baldric from Coventina's well, a shrine on Hadrian's Wall (Allason-Jones 1985, p. 29-30,no. 74). Another possible broad parallel is a suspension ring that is attached to a sheath by a fine copper-alloy loop (Bishop 2006, p. 85, fig. 43b-d). Another parallel is the late Roman strap ends known as ‘tubular type’ with a hollow cylinder and transverse groove decoration, either cast in one piece or soldered onto a rectangular plate, and runs the width of the belt (Hawkes and Dunning 1961, 4, 67). All of these examples, however, lack the confronted dolphin design. This is the first example of its kind recorded on the PAS database. 

References cited

Allason-Jones, L., 1985. Coventina's Well: A shrine on Hadrian's Wall. Coventinas Well-Clayton Coll.

Bishop, M.C. and Coulston, J.C., 2006. Roman military equipment from the Punic Wars to the fall of Rome. Oxbow books.

Hawkes, S.C., Hawkes, S.C. and Dunning, G.C., 1961. Soldiers and settlers in Britain, fourth to fifth century: with a catalogue of animal-ornamented buckles and related belt-fittings. Medieval Archaeology, 5(1), pp.1-70.