Rights Holder: Kent County Council
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Unique ID: KENT-E9F568
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published
Description: An incomplete Early Medieval silver hooked tag now in two pieces. It has a circular plate, most of the upper half of which is missing (old break) so no attachment holes or lugs remain; a small fragment, 4mm wide, has been detached, probably during recovery.
The plate has a separate silver dome-headed rivet (6.5mm in diameter) in a rivet hole in the centre of the plate. The rest of the plate has relief decoration probably in three fields or panels; a vertical ladder-pattern bstrip flanked by thin undecorated relief strips runs from the central rivet to the hook, and tiny stubs of two similar oblique strips can be seen running from the rivet to the breaks in the upper half. All together these strips would have formed a Y pattern dividing the decoration into three. The uppermost field is now entirely missing, but the two lower fields have identical interlace, possibly with a very stylised animal head in the lower corners which has nicks into its edges in the Trewhiddle style. A small area of niello inlay survives next to the rivet in the right-hand panel. The entire plate has a ladder-pattern border with a thin undecorated relief strip just within it. The small detached fragment also has relief decoration on one face; the reverse of the plate is undecorated.
There is a moulded collar at the junction of the plate and hook which is decorated with two transverse grooves. The hook is undecorated and extends for 9.1mm before terminating in an old break. It is 3.5mm wide and 2.1mm thick.
Dimensions: Surviving length c. 26mm, surviving width 23.6mm, thickness of plate 1.1mm. Weight 2.65g.
Discussion and Date: Hooked tags were in use from the second half of the 7th to the 11th centuries. They were probably all-purpose fastenings used to secure clothing, purses, etc. The division of this one into three panels, plus the details of the interlace, links it to the Trewhiddle style, which was in use broadly during the 9th century AD. This date is also supported by the use of a separate rivet. Parallels in silver include Read (2008) nos. 144 and 146; Webster and Backhouse (eds) 1991, nos. 196-197; and Graham-Campbell 1982. Parallels on the PAS database are fewer, but include the copper-alloy example NMS-DF4534 and the silver example HAMP-0B4001.
Notes:
In terms of age and as the object contains a minimum of 10% precious metal it qualifies as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder after being disclaimed as Treasure
Treasure case tracking number: 2012T748
Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Middle
Period from: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod to: Late
Period to: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Ascribed Culture:
Anglo-Saxon style
Date from: Circa AD 800
Date to: Circa AD 900
Quantity: 1
Thickness: 1.1 mm
Weight: 2.65 g
Diameter: 23.6 mm
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Treasure case number: 2012T748
Primary material: Silver
Completeness: Incomplete
Surface Treatment: Inlaid with niello
Grid reference source: Generated from computer mapping software
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Read, B. | 2008 | Hooked-Clasps and Eyes | Langport | Portcullis Publishing | 37 | 146 |