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HARNESS PENDANT
Unique ID: ESS-E7FED3
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation 
Cast copper-alloy shield shaped harness pendant. The surface of the pendant is decorated in moulded relief and the pattern is a diagonal cross-hatch across the entire surface, with a diagonal band running from the upper left to the lower right edge (when viewed head-on). There is also evidence of gilding present on the surface. The back is plain and undecorated.
There is an attachment stem that rises from the centre of the top edge, and would likely originally have featured a drilled hole, perpendicular to the plane of the pendant face. This hole would have facilitated hanging.
Pendants such as these are fairly common and well represented on the PAS database. Harness pendants of the shield shape are thought to account for around 33% of all known examples of harness pendants of this period (Griffiths, 1995: 61-62). The shield shape harness pendants, along with other heraldic harness decoration, became increasingly popular after the mid 13th century. It is likely that this example dates from c. 1250 - 1400.
Class: heraldic
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1250
Date to: Circa AD 1400
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 36.5 mm
Width: 21.5 mm
Thickness: 1.6 mm
Weight: 5.6 g
Personal details
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Materials and construction
Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Incomplete
Surface Treatment: Gilded
Spatial metadata
Region: Eastern (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Hertfordshire (County)
District: East Hertfordshire (District)
Parish or ward: Standon (Civil Parish)
Spatial coordinates
4 Figure: TL3922
Four figure Latitude: 51.87924776
Four figure longitude: 0.01795197
1:25K map: TL3922
1:10K map: TL32SE
Grid reference source: Centred on field
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
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