BUCKLE

Sheet copper alloy buckle plate, missing the buckle frame and pin, but still retaining fragments of leather and plaited textile between the folded plate. The pin bar, which is made of iron, remains within the folded end of the plate and is visible in the central gap where the pin would have wrapped around the bar. The bar would have extended into a single-loop buckle but the shape of that buckle frame is unknown. The rectangular plate is made up of a folded piece of copper alloy sheet and has one rivet, 3 mm in diameter, still intact in the centre of the opposite end to the pin bar where the plate has worn into a curved terminal. The upper plate is decorated with two sets of four incised squares set at oblique angles like lozenges bordering, on either side, a central set of four smaller squares or lozenges filled with incised transverse lines that are parallel with a central line that runs the length of the plate. This longitudinal line is crossed by a line that runs perpendicular to it, across the width of the plate, just behind the rectangular aperture for the pin. This pattern of alternating segments is likely designed to emulate enamelled work or textile. The textile held within the two sides of the plate is a pale buff colour and is plaited to strengthen the fibres, probably as part of a webbing belt or strap. The textile looks plant based and is likely to be hemp or sisal, which both have strong pale fibres (Laura Ratcliffe pers comm).

The plate is 66 mm long in total, if it were unfolded, 12 mm wide and 0.7 mm thick.

Whitehead (1996) illustrates a similar buckle plate with engraved decoration on page 22, no.98, which is dated from c.1250-1400.

Egan & Pritchard (2002) illustrate examples of buckle plates with similar decoration on pages 114 & 119, figs.74 & 78, nos.534 & 568, which are dated from c.1350-1400.

Griffiths, Philpott & Egan (2007) illustrate a plate with a similar pattern of lozenges and parallel lines on page 107, plate 18, no.816, which is dated from the later Medieval period.