File:Early Medieval bracteate (FindID 647009).jpg

English: Early Saxon gold C-bracteate. The repoussé decoration depicts a highly stylised horse and over-large bearded male head in profile facing right with four pellets below his triangular nose, a round eye with two lines indicating the lower eyelid and a hairstyle ending with a round coil and tail at the back and a triangle with a spiral in the front. The horse has a triangular ear, gaping mouth and small eye. Between the broad neck and the lower trunk are two dots. Above the large round hip and tail are two further dots. One short hindleg ends in a broad foot. The front legs are detached from the body, the front one is bent at the knee and ends in a broad pointed foot. There is a line of pellets around the edge interrupted by the horse's head and hip. For a short section to one side of the loop there is a line of tiny triangular stamps following the edge which were stamped over the edge or cut through leaving small notches around most of the edge of the disc. The gold foil is not quite round and there is a tear on the left side. The loop is formed from an integral tab which has been folded backwards and soldered or braised to the reverse to close the loop. Traces of two or three ribs survive at one end of the otherwise extremely worn loop, which is almost worn through at the apex. The motif is clearly visible at the reverse. The motif belongs to the only type of C-bracteates that has been found in Anglo-Saxon England, other examples include FAKL-500088, a silver bracteate from East Riding of Yorkshire and NMS-25CDD3 (HER 29937), a die for a C-bracteate from Norfolk. The new motif has some unique features like the spiral in which the hairstyle end above the forehead or the large curled lower lip of the quadruped. The closest parallels of the animal, especially the front foot, are found on the copper alloy bracteates from Eriswell, grave 42, Suffolk, the silver bracteate from East Leake, Nottinghamshire and the gold pendant from De Valom in Frisia. The placing of the loop would allow the wearer to view the image when looking down at it, but the image would appear up-side-down to people looking at them.

Date: 6^th century.

Dimensions: Height 29mm. Width 26mm. Thickness less than 1mm. Weight 3.1g.