File:Buckle from Amiens (in the British Museum collection) depicting Daniel in the Lions' Den (FindID 49865).jpg

English: Counter-plate from a Frankish buckle set, cast from a dark, almost black copper alloy. It is roughly triangular, with an indentation in the centre of the short edge to accommodate the protruding end of the buckle's pin, and two long symmetrically shaped sides which taper towards a rounded apex. The reverse is rough and slightly sunken, with two lugs. Each lug is broken across a perforation; that closest to the apex is set longitudinally, and that closest to the wider end is set transversely. The lugs would have been inserted through the leather belt and pins passed through the perforations to hold them in place. Originally it would have formed part of a set together with an oval buckle loop, pin with expanded plate at its base, and a buckle plate of similar if not identical design. The counter-plate measures 36 x 25 mm and dates to the late sixth or seventh centuries AD.

Each of the long sides of the counter-plate curves out around a grooved circle close to the wider end; these circles have a drilled dot in the centre and are stylised representations of rivet heads. The third stylised rivet head, at the apex, has the curved edge and drilled dot, but there is no grooved circle. The rest of the plate is covered with grooved decoration which is symmetrical about a longitudinal axis. In most of these buckles the decoration is essentially an interlace pattern, but this example is different. It is hard to be specific as to what is depicted, but the shaped outline of the long edges suggests that there may be an animal head in profile on each of them with the jaws towards the apex and the necks stretching back towards the two clearer dummy rivets. If the plate is held with the apex downwards, the rest of the design can possibly be read as a human figure with short legs, wearing a belt which is being grasped by the two hands. The shoulders are broad and decorated each with an oval shape which looks like an eye; between these is a sub-triangular motif above a long fish shape which occupy the chest area. There appears to be no head, but if the buckle plate was decorated in the same way it is possible that the expanded base of the pin would have taken on this role. Alternatively, the eye shapes, the sub-triangle and the fish shape can be combined to look a little like a human face.

Full-length human figures are rare in early-medieval art, but when they do occur are usually seen from the front as here. Examples include a 9th-century strap-end from Brandon and a triangular buckle plate from Finglesham (Webster and Backhouse 1991, fig. 2 and cat. no. 66l). The Finglesham man is of similar date to this new piece and is from a similar artefact type; he is also wearing a belt. Barry Ager has seen a drawing of this object, and comments that "there is a large bronze openwork triangular buckle in the British Museum's collection from Amiens (reg. no. P&E 91, 10-19, 15) which also has a very schematic human figure in the centre and two animals in the borders facing the apex. For a Frankish piece of this date it would be reasonable to suggest that the whole image could possibly represent Daniel in the Lions' Den (e.g. a buckle from Boussieres, France). There are some very stylised versions of this scene on other buckles (e.g. one from Paderborn)." The counter-plate is a remarkable and fascinating find; Frankish items of this date are rare in England, especially outside Kent.

For the Boussieres buckle, see E. Salin, La Civilisation Merovingienne (1959) pl. VI; for the Paderborn buckle, see C. Stiegemann and M. Wemhoff, Kunst und Kulture der Karolingerzeit: Karl der Grosse und Papst Leo III in Paderborn (Band I, 1999) no. VI.64.