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HARNESS PENDANT
Unique ID: PUBLIC-1FCD40
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published 
A copper-alloy harness pendant in the Anglo-Scandinavian Ringerike style. The pendant is an irregular oval in shape with a complete integral suspension loop at the uppermost point. The sides of the oval are made up of two opposing animals with details made up of relief lines. The heads are at the top of the pendant; they have pointed-oval eyes and slight lappets at the back of the head. Their open jaws meet to form an open lozenge just below the suspension loop. The animals' front legs are bent, and their feet each have three clear toes; they meet at the base of the jaws and there is a slight bump at the back of the shoulders. The back legs of each animal are short, and the three-toed feet appear to be grasping their tails which meet at the bottom of the pendant and then merge to complete the oval shape before running upwards to meet the feet. The whole design creates a beautifully neat and symmetrical openwork effect.
A direct parallel to this harness pendant can be found illustrated in Bowsher et al. 2007, 335; fig. 314, ref. S47. This came from a Period 10 deposit on the London Guildhall site, dated c. 1050-1140. It is certainly an interesting find and adds to a small group of Anglo-Scandinavian horse-harness pendants, those on the PAS database still numbering less than a dozen.
The design is comparable to that on a stirrup-strap mount recorded on this database: WMID-242776
Notes:
Donated to "The Collection" Lincoln, 16/04/2014.
Find of note status
This is a find of note and has been designated: National importance
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Late
Period from: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Period to: MEDIEVAL
Ascribed Culture:
Anglo-Scandinavian style
Date from: Circa AD 1025
Date to: Circa AD 1100
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 48 mm
Width: 35 mm
Thickness: 3 mm
Weight: 13.77 g
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Thursday 13th January 2011
Personal details
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Materials and construction
Spatial metadata
Region: East Midlands (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Lincolnshire (County)
District: East Lindsey (District)
To be known as: Skidbrooke
Spatial coordinates
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
References cited
| Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowsher, D., Dyson, T., Holder, D. and Howell, I. | 2007 | The London Guildhall: an archaeological history of a neighbourhood from early medieval to modern times | London | MoLAS | 335 | S47 |
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Timeline of associated dates
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