MOUNT

Description

Treasure reference 2018 T563: an Early Medieval silver Carolingian silver mount, partly gilded and inlaid with niello, and decorated with Carolingian-style plant ornament. The mount is oval in plan and domed at the front with high, curved sides. The domed surface is decorated in relief, with the higher-relief sections of the design inlaid with niello and the lower-relief sections gilded. The selective gilding appears to be deliberate, rather than the result of wear on the higher relief elements of the design.

The domed surface is dominated by a raise cross motif. The arms of the cross are formed by a pair of lines separated from one another by a deep incised line filled with niello. Each arm terminates - and radiates from - a half-rounded, raised barrel divided transversley by two deep incised lines filled with niello. A slender curving plant ornament joins each terminal of the cross, and together they form a foliate perimeter around the mount. Within each angle of the cross are three pointed oval leaves, and these when seen as whole form a lozenge shaped flower head.

An integrally cast shank of rectangular section extends from the perimeter of the reverse of the mount at the top and the bottom. Both shanks are incomplete. The concave reverse of the mount is somewhat irregular and does not appear to have been smoothed over.

Dimensions

Length: 40mm. Width: 27mm. Thickness: 12mm. Weight: 24.06g.

Shanks: 6mm x 4mm. Length 7mm.

Discussion and Date: Over twenty similar mounts are known from England, all of which are thought to derive from richly embellished baldrics, equestrian equipment, and waist belts manufactured on the Frankish continent during the period of Carolingian hegemony (Thomas 2012). A close parallel, both functionally and geographically can be seen in the 9th century silver belt-slider found at St Paul in the Bail, Lincoln (Jones, Stocker and Vince 2003, 151, fig. 8.9). The St Paul in the Paul slider takes the same domed oval form of the present example, and also has two integrally cast arms extending below, which wraps around the plate of a buckle.

A close parallel for the decorative technique of niello and selective gilding can be seen on the Carolingian mount from Roudham and Larling, Norfolk (NMS-ADCA16). The Roudham and Larling mount also has two incomplete integral shanks extending from the reverse.

For the wider suite of Carolingian and Carolingian-style mounts from England, see Thomas (2012), and examples on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database such as SF-E2FFD6, ESS-BE9A25, YORYM-EAF943, FAHG-123AB4, and NMS-5BAC02. They all date from the mid 9th to the end of the 10th century AD.

Reference

Jones, M., Stocker, D. and Vince, A. 2003. The City by the Pool. Oxford: Oxbow.

Thomas, G. 2012. 'Carolingian Culture in the North Sea World: Rethinking the Cultural Dynamics of Personal Adornment in Viking-Age England'. European Journal of Archaeology 15:3, 486-518.