File:Buckle of later Early-Medieval date (FindID 555113).jpg

English: An incomplete cast copper-alloy buckle frame of late Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Scandinavian date. Half of the D-shaped frame and part of the bar survive intact, the remainder now missing due to old breaks. The frame has an expanded outer edge set at an angle of 45 degrees to the bar an with openwork and moulded decoration. This comprises an upper and lower border between which appears to be zoomorphic(?) decoration perhaps of an uncertain creature facing towards the centre of the outer edge, where it terminates in old breaks, forked tendrils extending towards the narrow sides of the frame and bar. A series of oval and circular apertures are present above and below the moulded decoration, as well as in the old breaks. At the juncture of frame and bar is a moulded and projecting boss in the form of an oval animal head with open moth facing towards the centre of the frame, recessed cheeks or eyes, a prominent brow and small semi-circular ears projecting at the bar end. The integrally cast bar is mostly incomplete due to old breaks but is cylindrical in form. The back face of the buckle is flat and undecorated and the entire fragment has a dark green patina. It measures 45.87mm in width, 26.07mm in length, 4.45mm in thickness, and 11.42g in weight.

This buckle fragment finds parallels in a number of examples recorded through the PAS (e.g. YOYRM-E79894 and KENT-CD50A4) and especially in an incomplete example from near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (SF-033CF1) and a more complete example from Berkshire (BERK-7A0563). The form and decorative elements of the current example suggest a later Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Scandinavian date range, perhaps in the 10th-11th centuries AD.