STIRRUP

A cast copper-alloy upper segment from a late Medieval stirrup, dating to the c. 14th century AD. The fragment consists of the strap bar, strap bar cover and a small portion of both of the side arms; the rest of the object is missing due to old damage. The stirrup strap bar is rectangular in shape, creating a rectangular slot which runs from the top to bottom of the strap segment; this would have looped backwards and and back up over the strap bar, which is worn and rounded on the lower edge. The front of the strap cover is trapezoidal in plan and relatively flat, with a narrowed upper edge and a wider base. It is decorated with a series of vertical bars which alternate between a raised decorated face and a recessed vertically chiseled or 'combed' face; the raised decorated faces are incised with three horizontal incised lines which run parallel to one another across the outer surface of the stirrup strap cover, while the recessed segments seem to have been incised shallowly with parallel vertical lines, similar to the texture of surface 'combing'. They are trunated at the bottom by a raised horizontal ridge and the area between the two raised decorative motifs seems to also have been treated with very shallow horizontal chiseling or 'combing'. Also, a pair of raised horizontal ridges are positioned at the base. The side strap arms begin at the bottom of the stirrup cover base and project slightly outwards, which would have given the original object a piriform or 'tear-drop' shape. They are semi-circular in cross-section. The stirrup strap cover measures approximately 30 mm high, 37.64 mm wide (at top), 48.07 mm wide (at base), 3.81 mm thick (without stirrup strap loop), 15.02 mm thick (with stirrup strap loop); the overall fragment measures 49.63 mm maximum length; the stirrup arm fragments range from 3.14 mm think to 3.25 mm thick. The fragment weighs 47.97 grams.

Similar stirrups, in both copper-alloy and iron, have been found in excavations in London. Clark suggests a 14th century date for the group (1995; pp. 71). A very similar example can be seen in Read, p. 90-1, fig.547 (1988). See PAS database records: IOW-EE9472 and SUSS-A4D454 for close parallels and BUC-EFD315 for a related and complete example.