BUCKLE

An incomplete copper alloy gilded buckle. The single looped buckle has a rectangular with a chamfered wedge-shaped cross section. The corners of the frame are not chamfered and are decorated with pairs of diagonal lines.The strap bar has a circular sectioned constriction for the attachment of the missing pin. There is a notch opposite one the in side of the outer edge. From the outside of the outer edge, again at the mid point and in the same plane as the frame, is a large projecting plate. It is narrowed from the frame and rectangular. At the outer end there is a double stranded transverse collar before the pentagonal,tri-lobed terminal with large central aperture.This is very like an integral buckle-plate, but these are usually integral to the back bar of the frame rather than the outer edge. The surfaces retain traces of gilding all over the front face and also areas of the reverse.This makes it difficult to see how any strap would be attached to thew bar, given that the gilding and chamfering of the frame would be obscured it such were attached in the usual way.In essence this appears to be back-to-front and without an obvious place to attach the strap. The large circular aperture in the integral plate may have functioned as a suspension loop or junction.
Date: Medieval - 11c. 14th century (possibly)
Dimensions: 41.96 mm x 37.01 mm x 3.94 mm
Weight: 12.59 g