BUCKLE

Part of a copper alloy buckle. The frame can perhaps be described as almost pentagonal or lozengiform. Its outside edge is curved internally and has two straighter edges externally, which meet at a central raised V-shaped knop at the centre. The V has its open edge with two points projecting from the exterior edge; the closed point of the V does not reach the interior edge. The two halves of the outside edge are decorated with a line of beaded decoration within a broad central groove following the shape of the frame.

The top and bottom edges are straight and converge towards a very short bar; at each angle between the top and bottom edges, and the outside edge, thereis another similar raised knop, making three in all. The knops have hints of relief decoration, perhaps a relief line emphasising the inside of the V, and it may be that they were intended as animal heads. The top and bottom edges are extremely worn but there are hints that they may have had similar beaded decoration too.

The fifth edge is very short but projects slightly at either end, beyond the angle with the sides of the buckle frame. It is undecorated and has a strip of iron corrosion, perhaps the remains of a loop from a pin, on the reverse. Two short integral arms extend from the rear of the bar, and these are transversely pierced, presumably to hold a bar on which a missing buckle plate might have hinged. It measures 39.8mm in length, is 30,2mm wide, has a thickness of 2.3mm, and weighs 10.1g. The buckle remains in fair condition but is very worn and corroded, missing much of its surface. The patina now is a smooth matt brown with patches of shiny exposed metal and small areas of green corrosion.

It is very difficult to find a parallel for this buckle. The pentagonal shape occurs on medieval buckles such as LVPL-1865F6, but the more remarkable aspect is the pair of closely set projecting pierced arms. These tend to be confined to 11th-century buckle frames, such as BH-9B4B78, NCL-341171 and LIN-D9C500.