DIE STAMP

Complete but worn and corroded copper-alloy die for making pressed appliqué and filigree pendants of later Early Medieval date and of Viking cultural design. Such dies are known as Hiddensee-Rügen type.

The die is essentially cross-shaped and has a plain, flat back. The main part of the die consists of three cross-shaped arms which are co-joined creating two openwork circular holes through the body of the die. The fourth arm of the cross is an extended T-shape with the head of the T being rounded at the front and flat at the back. There are faint traces of interlace decoration on the front of the die but this is now heavily worn. This object would have been used to create pressed silver or gold sheet appliqués, which were applied to a pendant back-plate and used as a base for filigree and granulation work.

The thickness of the die measures 6.2mm front-to-back at the enlarged T-shaped terminal and is otherwise 4.2 - 4.4mm thick. The T-shaped terminal measures 28mm wide whereas the overall width is 36.8mm. The overall length is 47.2mm and it weighs 26.3g.

Kevin Leahy has added that a published study of such dies was carried out by Armbruster (2004, 109-24) which notes examples which are both plain and decorated with interlacing.

This example is dated AD. c.870-970 in line with another example recorded on the PAS database. The similar object already recorded on the PAS database is record NLM-690F57 and Dr Jane Kershaw contributed the following notes which are partially reprinted here:

This die [NLM-690F57], together with a lead patrix from York, used to create moulds for similar dies (Roesdahl 1981, 116-118, no. YMW 13), suggests the manufacture in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire of highly sophisticated silver or gold jewellery. Related jewellery is normally ascribed to the Hiddensee-Rügen style, named after the gold jewellery hoard discovered in the late 19th century in Hiddensee on the island of Rugen, off the Baltic coast of Germany. Their distribution extends from Poland to Ukraine, but most examples derive from late 10th-/early11th-century southern Scandinavian hoards (R. Skovmand, 'De danske Skattefund fra Vikingetiden og den Ældeste Middelalder indtil omkring 1150', Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndinghed og Historie (1942), 53).

The Swinhope die is one of a small group of recorded objects used in the production of Hiddensee-style cruciform pendants. Their manufacture is attested at Hedeby (Schleswig) by 13 bird-shaped dies (Armbruster 2004, 113, fig. 8). A further die comes from the 'fortress' at Trelleborg (Denmark) (P. Nørlund, Trelleborg (Copenhagen, 1948), pl XXV.5), while a clay mould used to make similar bronze matrices was recently uncovered during excavations at Borgeby in south-west Scania (F. Svanberg, 'Exclusive Jewellery, Borgeby and Western Scania c. AD 950-1050', Fornvännen 93 (1998), fig. 5). These examples provide evidence for the production of Hiddensee-style pendants at high-status sites in areas controlled by the late 10th-century Jelling kings.

Also compare HAMP-61E854.