File:Buckle plate (FindID 465284).jpg

English: Cast copper alloy single-looped oval buckle frame with ornate outer edge and a narrowed and off-set pin bar to which a plate and pin are attached. The ornate outer edge is made up of four lobes, divided by four transverse ridges, the central two furnishing a notch for the pin. The copper alloy pin is cast and tapers to a point. The plate is made up of a folded piece of copper alloy sheet and has two broken rivet holes at the end, the rivets having been lost. The plate is engraved with two parallel bands and within the upper band, there is incised the word 'AVIE' and within the lower band, 'I I I A'. There are also two deliberate scratches, or rocked tracer lines, between the I and the E of AVIE and the first two I I of I I I A, which may be trying to transform them into a retrograde 'N' or an 'M' which would then spell 'MIA', short for MARIA. Similar examples with missing or illegible inscriptions on the database are BUC-C61B87 and SF-0B21E1.

The buckle frame is 19 mm long and 22.5 mm wide and 5 mm in thickness. The pin is 19 mm long and 4 mm wide and 2 mm in thickness and the plate is 48 mm long, 17.5 mm wide and 2 mm thick.

Whitehead (1996) illustrates a similar example, engraved with the words AVA LEV, on page 23, No.100, which is dated from c.1250-1400.

Egan (2002) illustrates an example of an ornate oval frame and plate on page 77, Fig.46, No.314, which is dated from c.1270-1350.

Buckle plates with this type of inscription are discussed by J. Mills in R. Ivens (ed) 1995, p.336 with reference to one excavated at Tattenhoe in Buckinghamshire (no.7). Parallels cited include those from Seacourt, Oxfordshire (Biddle 1963, p.167, fig.28, no.16); Billingsgate, London; and Mancetter, Warwickshire. A composite strap-end decorated in the same style has been excavated at Westbury, Buckinghamshire (Mills in Ivens (ed) 1995, p.352, no.171).