PENDANT

An Early-Medieval rectangular gold and garnet pendant. The item is rectangular in plan with slightly rounded corners. The setting is a cabochon-cut red stone, presumably a garnet that is held within the collar made from an upright strip of gold that is fixed to the back-plate. The back plate is slightly larger than the collar which results is a very small protruding lip onto which is mounted a strand of gold beaded wire with two thinner bands above. There is a break in the bands to accommodate the suspension loop.

The suspension loop is a rectangular corrugated strip that is 3mm wide. One end extends three quarters of the way down the back of the pendant where it is soldered into place. The other end is folded into a loop there it is attached to the side wall.at the top of the loop there is a notch on either side from wear.

This pendant is extensively damaged; the stone is divided by a large crack running from lower left to upper right, with a second crack running from the middle to the bottom. The thin bead wire has separated from the wall of the pendant on the top left side and the rim of the collar is misshaped on the left side.

Pendants like this one were typically used to decorate high-status necklaces in the seventh century. The most elaborate surviving example is that from Desborough, Northamptonshire (Webster and Backhouse 1991, 28, fig. 13; British Museum 1876,0504.1), upon which garnet pendants (including some of similar shape to the Carthorpe example) alternate with gold bullae pendants and biconical wire beads, with a cross pendant as the centrepiece.

Examples of rectangular or square gold-and-glass pendants are known from metal-detecting, and have been recorded at LIN-0FB775 (2007 T505), LIN-DAFEE5 (2012 T616) and IOW-05E330 (2014 T586).

An increasing number of small gold and garnet pendants are being found as stray finds, reported through the Treasure Act and recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database. Examples include LIN-18EEC1 (2011 T691) which is part of a necklace; SF-CD3B63 (2010 T348), DENO-494555 (2009 T542) and LEIC-437467 (2006 T568). This type of pendant has been classified as PE9-b by Hines and Bayliss (2013) and is dated to the seventh century (Hines and Bayliss 2013, 364-365; Geake 1997, 39-40).

Geake, H., 1997. The Use of Grave Goods in Conversion Period England AD 600-850. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports

Hines, J. and Bayliss, A. (eds.), 2013. Anglo-Saxon Graves and Grave Goods of the 6th and Seventh Centuries AD: A Chronological Framework. London: Society for Medieval Archaeology