SCABBARD

An incomplete scabbard sheath chape of Medieval date. This artefact is like the one found at Wharram Percy (Goodall 1979) which may date to approximately the 12th Century AD. It is also similar to the chape recorded in PAS database record BUC-ADAD64, ESS-7E5D98 & SUSS-CE4E27.

The artefact made of sheet metal would originally have had a 'U' shape consisting of a horizontal upper edge and 'V' shaped lower edge to the body of the chape. A single arm would have extended upwards from each end. The 'U' shaped artefact would have been folded in half to form a roughly 'L' shaped final object.

The centre of the body has a height of 10.5mm that tapers to 7.9mm below the surviving arm. The external lower corner is rounded. The external edge rises up to form the outer edge of the surviving chape arm. The body zone has a thin rectangular cross-section with rounded edges. The thickness of the body zone is 1.6mm close to the arm but thickens to 2.0mm towards the centre of the body. The vertical centre of the body expands to a thickness of c.3.4mm where the sheet metal would originally have been folded in half. The artefact has broken at this location however the break is extremely worn, falsely resembling a true edge of artefact. On the lower edge of the body zone there is an inverted 'U' shaped notch just before the thickened centre. It is uncertain whether this is an intentional decorative feature or just a worn break. The 'U' shaped notch has a width of 3.1mm and height of 1.3mm. A plain border of c.1.6mm height is present along the upper and lower edge of the external surface of the body zone. The area between these borders is decorated with incised or moulded diagonal linear grooves. Groupings of these lines form opposing triangles. The reverse surface of the body is undecorated.

The arm has a 'D' shaped cross-section with flat reverse surface. The outer edge of the arm is convexly curved and the inner edge is concavely curved. The arm has a width of 3.3mm and thickness of 1.9mm close to the body of the chape. At the proximal end the arm expands in width to 4.2mm in order to accommodate an aperture. The arm has a worn break across the remains of this aperture. The aperture would originally have been used as a rivet hole to secure the chape to the scabbard. The rivet would have passed through this and the now missing arm. The top of this incomplete arm has been bent forward representing further damage. Neither the inner or external surface of the arm show any decoration.

The remains of this chape weight 2.65g. With the top of the arm folded forwards the object has a height of 26.1mm. Use of a flexible (dressmakers') tape-measure indicates that the chape would have originally have had a height in excess of 38.0mm.

Also see BUC-ADAD64, WILT-9D820A & HAMP-679AC3. Many thanks to Rob Webley & Katie Hinds for their help with this record.