File:Early Medieval shield boss (FindID 282969).jpg

English: A conical iron shield boss, dating from the early Anglo-Saxon period. The wall of the boss is short, and is almost straight but slightly convex. The cone is straight and the spike or button at the apex of the cone is waisted, with a flattened head which is broader than the shaft of the spike. Most of the flange is missing except for a short length that carries a rivet with a flat circular head and a shaft of rectangular cross-section. The boss is 123.8mm in diameter including the remaining width of flange, and 117 mm excluding the flange. It is 77.1mm high and weighs 486g.

For reference see West 1998. A Corpus of Anglo Saxon material from Suffolk, fig. 71.3, but the terminal at the apex is less pronounced on the Suffolk example. It was found at a newly discovered cemetery site with other objects of the same date.

Helen Geake writes: From its measurements, this shield boss appears to be an example of Dickinson and Härke's Group 6, also known as Evison's 'low cones'. These have heights of 3 to 4 inches (76-102 mm) and diameters (with flange) of 4½ to 5½ inches (114-140 mm). The flanges tend to be narrow. However, from the image, the boss appears to have more in common with the wider Group 3s, which are more likely to have straight sides to the cone and larger buttons. An example of a similar Group 3 boss comes from Uffington (Dickinson and Härke 1992, fig. 10f). It is probably best described as borderline Group 3/6; there are many shield bosses of this type known (Geake 1997, 67). They probably date to the second half of the sixth or the first half of the seventh century.