BUCKLE

One half of a fourth century A.D. copper-alloy cast dolphin buckle of Hawkes and Dunning Type IIA. Depicts a dolphin holding a male human head in its jaws and a bird perched upon its crested head, with an incomplete buckle plate hinge loop. A matching dolphin and bird on the left, along with a hinge pin and buckle plate, are missing. The hinge loop (approx. 4mm diameter) is about ¾ intact and would have held a pin to connect the plate; the missing dolphin connected to this segment at its lower jaw and at the top of the human head, exhibiting some breakage. The external surface of the buckle is smooth from casting and then stamped and incised for decoration. Of primary focus is the dolphin, which has a rounded head tapering into a body/tail curving towards the left. Its upper and lower jaws curve outwards at the snout where it grasps the disembodied head. Decoration consists of a stamped ring-and-dot eye, with regularly-incised lines at the inside of its jaw, followed by two transverse lines separating the dolphin's head from its body and two more transverse lines near the hinge loop at the tail. A scalloped, continuous 'wave' is incised on its back, with a smaller scalloped pattern at its belly. A bird, measuring 12.5mm long, perches left on an undecorated crest above the dolphin's head, exhibiting an ovoid body, with tapered tail and beak and a narrowed head and neck, with light incised emphasis of wing outline and an angular linear pattern on top of its body (top of buckle). Finally, the human head, measuring 11.5mm long, faces forward (outwards) from the dolphin's mouth, shaped with rough features including two deeply stamped circle-and-dot eyes, like that of the dolphin, and a connected brow, ridged linear nose, and a vestigial beard, on a triangularly-shaped face with very straight, short, bowl-cut hair. His hair is incised with regularly-spaced lines. Interior surface of the buckle is smooth and slightly worn, with no discernible additional details, except for the cast bird's wing. Another PAS example: HAMP-34EBF6.

Daphne Briggs, a research student, notes: "This copper alloy buckle belongs to a class of late Roman military belt fittings that first appear in Britain in the period c. AD 350-370. An original Continental model with two dolphins supporting a ball or globe in their mouths, that is sporadically found in Britain, gave rise later int eh 370s to several highly distinctive regional types that were both made and used in Britain. The design with a pair of crested boar-dolphins that uphold a human head is mainly found in East Anglia, primarily within Icenian territory (Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire), and especially near their borders wtih neigbouring civitates. Inturned tails generally differentiate British dolphin buckles from their Continental prototypes, whilst the combination of strongly crested boar-dolphins and a "Celtic" head (here bearded) are positive Icenian identifiers. Sometimes late Roman buckles combine devices typical of two or more different civitates militias, and the elegant raptor that crowns this particular crested boar-dolphin is normally an identifier for Corieltauvian-type buckles, especially in and around Lincolnshire. See Stuart Laycock, Britannia and Failed State: Tribal Conflicts and the End of Roman Britain (Tempus, Stroud, 2008, pp. 113-125)." -- 8.6.10