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SCABBARD
Unique ID: SUSS-427FF4
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published 
A cast copper-alloy scabbard chape of early Anglo-Saxon date. The object comprises a tapering triangular plate of copper alloy, with a rounded end, which continues into a bend and creates a small back plate. The front plate has three circular settings, cast integrally to the plate; one on either side of the long edges and one on the point of the triangle. The settings are now empty but would have perhaps once housed a stone. There is a lot of iron corrosion on the surface of the chape. The metal is a mid greyish-green colour and the surface is slightly pitted.
This is one of a group of distinctive English chapes, which do not fall into any of Menghin's groups of Frankish chapes. The closest parallels in Menghin's groups are those with profiled terminal knobs (particularly his Type 3b, Andernach-Blumenfeld, and Type 3c, Wageningen), although the English finds are rather simpler, as they lack the animal or bird heads found on Types 3b and 3c.
The group now consists of three from Norfolk (Thetford, HER 24822; East Anglian Archaeology 72, fig.67 no.25; Congham, HER 25765, found 2001; and NMS-751713, Burnham Thorpe), two from East Sussex (SUSS-427FF4, near Eastbourne; and possibly the fragment SUSS-46F1D7, Beddingham), and one from the Isle of Wight (IOW-C1B525, Bowcombe). NMS-751713 retains a glass setting in one of the circular cells.
Class: chape
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Early
Period from: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod to: Early
Period to: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Ascribed Culture:
Anglo-Saxon style
Date from: Circa AD 400
Date to: Circa AD 600
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 38.41 mm
Width: 18.95 mm
Weight: 10.26 g
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Monday 26th September 2005
Personal details
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Materials and construction
Primary material: Copper alloy
Secondary material: Iron
Completeness: Incomplete
Spatial metadata
Region: South East (European Region)County or Unitary authority: East Sussex (County)
District: Wealden (District)
To be known as: Near Eastbourne
Spatial coordinates
Grid reference source: From a paper map
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
1 comment
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Terry Cranmer wrote @ 15:48:57 on the 26th April 2010.
When I found this item it had a small piece of iron inside so I was convinced it was the chape on a scabbard & the iron was what was left of the blade, could this be a possibility? Face on it could represent a horses head 2 eyes & a nose. Any opinion?
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