File:Early Medieval Buckle (FindID 504942).jpg

English: Incomplete medieval gilded copper-alloy buckle frame. Part only of the cast openwork broad angled outside edge with vertical curling lobed tendrils between two robed seated figures. Both sides of the frame, the pin and the probably integral plate, are missing. The figures, both male, have their heads slightly inclined towards one another, as if in conversation. Both faces are worn, as are other exposed elements, with no surviving features although some indication of hairstyle remains. The left hand figure has both hands on his right knee which is raised and projects forward with his foot placed on a globular knop at one end of the convex outside edge. The other figure's right arm is bent with his elbow angled towards the central tendril and with his right hand on his right knee. His left hand is placed on his left knee and his left foot rests on a globular knop at the other end of the outside edge. Stumps of the broken openwork frame survive at the outside edge of both figures. Surviving length 22 mm. Surviving width 33 mm. Weighs 13.40 g.

This remarkable buckle frame is paralleled by a silver gilt example found in the Dune Hoard, Gotland (Swarzenski, Monuments fig. 535). which has been dated to c. 1200. For a discussion of the significance of this object see Heslop, T.A., and Ashley, S., 2013 'A fragment of a gilt bronze buckle frame from Soham, Cambridgeshire, and the Dune Hoard belt buckle in Stockholm' Antiquaries Journal 93, 1-7 .