BRACTEATE

An Early Medieval D-bracteate, dating AD 475-525. The pendant is nearly completely preserved with only some parts of the beaded gold wire originally attached, now partly detached, to the edge of the gold foil missing. The wire show signs of wear. The disc is heavily bent in two places, partly obscuring the design. The motif is stamped in high relief, there is a clear impression on the reverse. The loop was made with six ridges of equal size but has been strongly abraded at the top so that here only four ridges are preserved. It was soldered on both sides of the disc, on the front partly covering the upper part of the animal's head.

Dimensions: diameter: 24.11 mm; thickness: 0.75 mm; weight: 2.33g (uncleaned).

Discussion: The design shows a typical D-bracteate animal facing left. The U-shaped back of the head is underneath the suspension loop, the front of the head is shown as a large scissor-shaped loop with its lower part crossing the S-shaped body twice, first above then below. Next to the upper part is a feature, representing probably a human foot, comparable with a similar detail on IK 456 King's Field-D, Kent. The front leg starting at the round shoulder crosses the neck first below, then with its foot above it. Hip and hindleg are only partially visible. In addition to the D-bracteate from King's Field, the motif has further close parallels among Kentish D-bracteates including IK 411 Bifrons, IK 494 and 495 both from Sarre. Other parallels are from Norfolk, IK 601 Blakeney Freshes and from Jutland, including IK 521 Snorup and IK 562 Vester Nebel.

Non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis of the bracteates undertaken at the British Museum indicated a surface composition of approximately 88-89% gold, 10-11 % silver, the rest being copper.

The object contains a minimum of 10% precious metal and is over 300 years old. Consequently it qualifies as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996 in terms of both age and precious metal content.

Literature:

Behr, C 2010, 'New Bracteate Finds from early Anglo-Saxon England', Medieval Archaeology 54.

IK = Axboe, M, Düwel, K and Hauck, K (eds) 1985-89, Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog 1-3, Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 24 and Axboe, M and Heizmann, W (eds) 2011, Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit - Auswertung und Neufunde, RGA Ergänzungsband 40, Berlin - New York, pp. 893-999.

Charlotte Behr, University of Roehampton