File:Early Medieval strap fitting (FindID 437685).jpg

English: One end of a gilded silver strap fitting with gold, garnet and blue glass inlays, dating to the first half of the seventh century AD. The piece consists of one end with attachment rivets, and the stub of one side of a broken probably rectangular plate with narrow sides around a probably rectangular hole in the centre. The breaks appear patinated and are probably not recent.

At the complete end is a wide transverse strip with a row of six rivet holes through it (for this description numbered 1-6). Three of these holes (in positions 1, 2 and 5) contain the remains of silver rivets with prominent domed heads. Only the rivet in position 1 appears complete: it has a circular-sectioned shank, and is bent over at 90 degrees at the back of the fitting before terminating in a slightly flattened, burred-over end. The other two silver rivets have broken off within the holes through the mount. In holes 4 and 6, and possibly hole 3, are the corroded remains of copper rivets; only short lengths remain within the hole but there are traces of copper corrosion around hole 6 on the front, suggesting this rivet may also have had a large head. This strip is 5.6mm wide by 2.1mm thick. The rivet heads are 3.5mm in diameter and the surviving rivet is 0.7mm in diameter on the shank.

After this strip the front of the rivet is stepped to become thicker. The step is slightly angled and the thicker part then runs flat again to the breaks. The back is also recessed at this point, echoing the shape of the front, but the sides continue the full thickness of the object so in side view the lower edge is continuous. This main, raised, plate appears to consist of a thin strip 4.0mm wide making a border around a large rectangular opening, with the end and part of one side strip remaining. The other side is broken at the corner where it meets the end.

This border strip has a central recess taking up almost its entire width, with a very narrow wall internally. Within this recess is inlaid a panel of cloisonné made with gold cell walls. The cloisonné panel ends in a break at each corner, but the slot which accommodates it continues along the side suggesting that the cloisonné did as well.

The cloisonné panel is arranged symmetrically around a T-shaped cell at the centre with the stem pointing towards the riveted end. There are three T-shaped cells, each containing blue glass. These cells are only two-thirds of the width of the cloisonné panel and are joined to the opposite edge by a bar projecting from their stem. The central T-shaped cell has its crossbar against the inner side of the panel, while the other two are on the opposite side with their crossbars on the outer side closer to the rivets. These outer two cells, being closer to the ends of the panel, are damaged; part of the inlay is missing in both.

The two areas between these three T-shaped cells are each divided diagonally, giving four cells, each of which contains a thin sheet of garnet laid over stamped (gridded) gold foil. Where the foil can be seen clearly it appears to be a 'waffle' pattern, with a square divided into perhaps 25 small squares set in a 5 x 5 grid. Two of the garnets have cracks or small sections missing, and in one the cell edge has torn and bent inwards. The cells at the ends of the strips are distorted and broken. One holds a gold foil with a raised pattern of small gridded cells, now at the same height as the other inlays. They presumably originally held tiny garnets.

The cast silver parts of the fitting, including the rivets, are gilded on the front but appear ungilded on the reverse. The gilding is worn on the higher parts and corners.

It is now 11.9mm long, 32.6mm wide and 4.5mm thick; it weighs 6.19g.

The fragment fits in to a series of rectangular buckle plates and belt mounts which have flattened riveted ends and a decorated rectangular frame around a central decorative panel. The decoration of both frame and central panel varies, and the range (as well as buckles with other decorative schemes) is illustrated by Windler (1989). These buckles and belt mounts are most commonly found on the Continent in the sixth and seventh centuries, but occasional examples do occur in England (Adams 2011; Speake 1980, p. 9).

Perhaps the closest comparison is the belt-mount from Gilton, a stray find now in the Mayer Collection, National Museums Liverpool (M 6206; Faussett 1856, pl. xxix, fig. 1; re-published in the Novum Inventorium Sepulchrale) which also has a separate gold cloisonné frame, with T-shaped garnets and blue glass squares, set on a gilded silver base.

The fact that these belt-plates and buckles can be made with separate central panels can be seen from the incomplete buckle from Breach Down, now in the British Museum (Speake 1980, pl. 9d). The use of blue glass inlays can be paralleled among other Anglo-Saxon cloisonné (e.g. sword pyramids from Sutton Hoo and the Staffordshire Hoard, the Sutton Hoo Mound 17 buckle, and the disc brooch from Kingston 205), and its occurrence is most often dated to the first half of the seventh century.

Thanks are due to Noel Adams for her help with this object.

References:

Adams, N., 2011. 'Earlier or later? The rectangular cloisonné buckle from Sutton Hoo Mound 1 in context' in S. Brookes et al. (eds), Studies in Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology: papers in honour of Martin G. Welch (BAR 527)

Faussett, B., 1856. Inventorium Sepulchrale

Novum Inventorium Sepulchrale: Kentish Anglo-Saxon graves and grave-goods in the Sonia Hawkes archive, 1st edn., July 2007 <a href="http://web.arch.ox.ac.uk/archives/inventorium/gravegood.php?site_ID=Gil&grave_ID=GilUnk&object_ID=M6206a&g=yes&sortclasscode=buckle&search=search">http://web.arch.ox.ac.uk/archives/inventorium/gravegood.php?site_ID=Gil&grave_ID=GilUnk&object_ID=M6206a&g=yes&sortclasscode=buckle&search=search</a> (accessed 13 Sep 2011)

Speake, G., 1980. Anglo-Saxon Animal Art and its Germanic Background

Windler, R., 1989. 'Ein frühmittelalterliches Männergrab aus Elgg (ZH): Bermerkungen zu einem filigranverzierten Schnallentyp' in Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte 72, 181-200.