BUCKLE

Cast copper-alloy buckle with kidney-shaped frame and integral triangular plate. There is a slight projection on either side at the junction of the frame and plate; in the centre here is a pin hole blocked with corrosion from the largely missing iron pin. The triangular buckle has a rivet hole in each of the three corners. Near the frame, the two corners are slightly expanded to accommodate the rivet holes, and here one copper-alloy rivet is still in place. From here two slightly narrower arms extend to either side of a heart-shaped central perforation. They meet at a rounded terminal lobe, pierced to take the third rivet, with a pair of small projections where the terminal meets the arms. H. W. Böhme studied buckles with integral triangular plates as part of his survey of late Roman artefacts in Britain, and the settlement of England by the earliest Anglo-Saxons (Böhme 1986, Liste 1, Abb. 5, Abb. 14). He dated them to the middle or second half of the 4th century and his map shows that they are found in small numbers not only in England and South Wales but also along the European frontier of the Roman Empire, along the Rhine and Danube rivers. Other examples with concave frames can be seen on the PAS database at LIN-6312A0 and ESS-E52552, and there are also two with D-shaped frames at GLO-FA9938 and NARC-C6E5B8.