File:Early Medieval buckle (FindID 513067).jpg

English: Early Medieval cast copper alloy single looped buckle frame. The frame is oval in plan and section with a flattened front and back. The recessed strap bar is very short, only about a third of the lengh of the inner edge. The outer edge is almost straight which the inner edge curves outwards to the strap bar ending in expanded (in width and thickness) trumpet shaped terminals flanking the bar. It is possibly these terminals are debased animal heads. Running around the front is a pair of incised lines with shorter cross lines between them creating the effect of a row of raised rectangles between the recessed lines. It is 17.0mm long, 11.9mm wide and 3.4mm thick; it weighs 1.34 grams.

In its oval form and short strap bar the buckle appears most similar to Early Early Medieval examples such as a similar but tinned example in Macgregor and Bolick (1993: 204) no. 34.53 and also in Marshall (1986: 6), no. 11, dated to the 6th and 7th centuries. Macgregor and Bolick (ibid: 192), suggest that these buckles range from the sub-Roman period to the late 7th century. Without the buckle plate, it is difficult to give a more precise dating. However, the integral strap bar and frame style suggests that this example is likely to fall later in this range.