BUCKLE

Cast copper-alloy buckle fragment with buckle plate intact. Only a small part of the buckle frame survives, but it is straight at the junction with the integrally cast plate, which is marked by an incised line.

The complete copper-alloy pin is attached through a large circular hole in the plate. The plate is sub-rectangular with a propeller-shaped (or sub-fleur-de-lis) terminal and openwork decoration consisting of two pairs of holes. The holes nearest the frame are rectangular and there is a circular hole towards each outer corner. There is incised rocker-arm decoration down the centre of the plate and along each of the top and bottom edges. There are two rivet holes in the plate, one in the terminal (with copper-alloy rivet intact) and one near the pin hole. Pale green, even patina. Length 36.5mm, width 18-20.5mm, thickness 0.5mm.

This buckle can be compared with a very similar object from a late 13th- or early 14th-century context in London, which is identified as a strap-end (Egan and Pritchard 1991, no. 608). The London example has completely lost its buckle frame, but its identity as a buckle is suggested by the large circular hole at one end which is hard to explain except as a pin hole. There are further examples of this distinctive buckle type on the database at NMS-71AE82, NMS-C191D1 and WILT-4D7AE1.