MOUNT

Early Medieval fitting decorated in the 'Quoit Brooch Style'. The fitting consists of a hollow, D sectioned tube, 12.8 x 8.3mm on one side of which is an integrally cast loop. This has a flat, 5.7 x 3.3mm section and one of its faces is edged by incised lines containing rows of angled lines. The loop is asymmetrically set, being level with the tube's undecorated, flat face. On the curved face of the tube are four, incised Quoit Brooch Style animals set in opposed and mirrored, pairs either side a central, transverse groove and separated by incised longitudinal lines. This is flanked by narrow bands of fine, transverse lines, a motif repeated at each end of the tube where the motif is supplemented by two, circumferential, incised lines. The damaged, plain bands at the ends of the tube bear a series of angled (c. 45 degree) incised lines. The animals are quadrupeds, shown running with their long heads, balanced by their extended ears, turned to look back over their bodies and towards their large tails. The eyes are marked by circular depressions. Each animal has a well-shaped body with a neatly defined waist, on their bodies are double rows of angled lines separated by an incised line giving a 'herringbone' effect. The front legs appear to extend forward while the back legs are beneath the animals' bodies.

This object appears to be related to a fitting from Croydon illustrated in S. Suzuki, 2000, The Quoit Brooch Style and Anglo-Saxon Settlement, pl. 22 and fig. 22 although it is much less elaborate. The Croydon fitting suggests the loop on the Etchinghill find is probably for attaching some piece of equipment by means of a riveted tab hanging from the loop. The two pairs of animals arranged on either side of the central furrow may be compared with the similar layout on a flat belt-plate from Meonstoke, Hants. (Ager, 'A Quoit Brooch Style belt-plate from Meonstoke, Hampshire' in Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, vol. 9 (1996). The object makes a useful addition to the corpus of Quoit Brooch Style metalwork known from England and increasingly from northern France (Ager, B., "A note on the objects decorated in the Quoit Brooch Style from the burials at Saint-Marcel", pp. 240-242 in F. Le Boulanger and L. Simon, 'De la ferme antique à la nécropole de l'Antiquité tardive (milieu du IIe s. - fin du Ve s. apr. J.-C). Étude archéologique du site de Saint-Marcel «le Bourg» (Morbihan)', Gallia, 69.1 (2012), 167-307). Length: 40.0mm, Width: 23.0mm, Thickness 8.3mm. Images courtesy of the finder.