STRAP FITTING

Late Iron Age or Roman copper alloy strap fitting, 30mm long, 28mm wide and 4mm thick with a weight of 13grams.

The object appears to be incomplete, this object possibly representing half of the whole? What is present consists of two sets of two domed motifs, (the lower ones appear slightly larger) contained within oval (tear) shaped raised borders. Each set of two is separated by a flat elongated triangular sheet, which begins half way along one of the motifs and flares outwards to where the object has broken. The reverse is flat except for small hollows corresponding to the two larger domes. Near the point where it has broken are the circular sectioned scars, probably from a rectangular shaped slider. Given that this is positioned so close to the break it could be assumed that only half of the object is present and that this fixing device was positioned in the centre of the whole object?

The object's design is similar to LVPL-FC6ED5 and others referenced here, but these examples only have two of the domed motifs making up a whole object. This 'eye' like motif is commonly seen in twos or as a single motif on late Iron age/early Roman period harness fittings, several of which are known from Leicestershire and neighboroughing Counties.