STRAP END

Badly worn 9th century Anglo-Saxon, copper alloy strap end of Thomas class A. This strap end is subrectangular in plan and tapers to a blunt, flattened end. It is subrectangular in section. It is 36.42mm long, 10.02mm wide, 3.7mm thick and weighs 3.32g. The strap end is cast as a solid object, except for at the attachment end where the upper part of the object divides into two plates with a 'v' shape profile. One of these plates survives intact, the other is damaged in corner. The copper alloy rivet remains are fragmentary. One rivet is clearly visible on the front and rear of the complete plate. It has broken before bridging the gap to the rear plate. No remains of it are visible on the rear plate, as this is the damaged corner that is now missing. Looking between the plates it is possible to see the remains of what might be another rivet shaft. However there is no evidence on the outer faces of each plate of a rivet or rivet hole.

The object has been heavily abraded and only tiny patches of the original surface survive with a dark green patina. Otherwise the object is mid to light green in colour with patches of bright green corrosion. Because of this, very little evidence of decoration survives. There does seem to be grooved lines on the object, but the amount of corrosion product makes them impossible to decipher. The end of the strap end would have been zoomorphic, but it is impossible to tell what style of decoration was employed.

Examples of class A strap ends are illustrated in the Finds Research Group Data sheet 32.