HANGING BOWL

A copper alloy hooked mount of Early-Medieval date (AD 600-800). The object is a fitting for a hanging bowl, a specialised type of early medieval metal vessel. The hook is of a curved form and is D shaped in section with an elongated ovate shape, flattened upper attachment end and a recessed underside at the terminating end. The terminating hooked end has incised zoomorphic decoration which is composed of a double circumferentially running line above and bulbous lentoid "eyes" and a semi-circular "mussel" with two sub-circular "nostrils".

This piece was originally one of a set of hooked-mounts, normally three, attached by their plates around the body of a circular copper-alloy bowl and fixed below the rim so that each hook projected above it. Each hook held a metal ring with a cord or strap attached used to hang the bowl from a central point. Hanging-bowls are specialised luxury vessels with Roman-period origins, and were made in the early medieval period only in Britain and later Ireland. They were much prized in the new Anglo-Saxon cultures of eastern Britain and included in furnished burials, contexts that date them to the mid- sixth and to mid-seventh century, although later types were made and found more widely distributed in the Viking period.

Similar Examples can be seen on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database: Unique ID: LON-3EDCD3, Unique ID: DENO-E207B6 and Unique ID: SWYOR-3D5807

Length: 28.62mm, Width: 23.83mm, Thickness: 7.77mm, Weight: 19.3g.