BUCKLE

An incomplete copper alloy gilt late Early Medieval or Medieval buckle, missing its pin and part of the buckle plate. The single oval buckle frame is D-shaped in plan and section, with an expanded outside edge and flat to the reverse. The bar is offset and narrowed for the plate. The buckle frame measures 16.40mm by 12.12mm, with the internal loop measuring 12.50mm by 7.45mm.

The buckle plate consists of a sheet of metal, folded around the bar with a rectangular slot for the pin. The front part of the plate is anthropomorphic in design, being waisted with round edges and a rounded end, and having three rivet holes, two set vertically in the section nearest the frame and one central hole in the rounded end section. Only the two copper alloy rivets nearest the frame survive, which are also attached to the back plate. There are two pointed projections either side of the plate just before it is folded over the bar. To the reverse the back of the plate is triangular in shape, but the end has broken off before the third rivet hole. Traces of gilding cover much of the front buckle plate. The plate measures 21.10mm by 11.75mm.

The buckle is now a dark purplish grey colour. The frame and plate together are 30.69mm long, 3.92mm thick and weigh 2.59g.

Although the anthropomorphic design suggests an Early Medieval date, the design of the buckle plate and general patina of the object indicate a later Medieval date. A buckle of similar design with a rounded, waisted plate, three rivet holes and projections before the bar is illustrated in Whitehead (1996), p18, no.48, which he claims were mainly in use between c.1250-1500. However, a buckle with a fairly similar design, and recorded on the database as BH-F4B6E5, has been dated by Geoff Egan to the 11^th or 12^th centuries.