File:Early medieval strap fitting, mount (FindID 960166).jpg

English: An incomplete copper alloy strap fitting, dating to the Early Medieval period, c. AD 1000-1100.

The object is cruciform in shape, with four arms reaching outwards from a sub-rectangular central area. Each of the arms tapers from the broad centre to narrower terminals, and each arm is broken at the point of these terminals. The terminals are hemispherical, and suggest that there were once attachment loops on all four arms, although these are now broken. The vertical arms preserve the original shape of these loops most clearly. The arms themselves are different in shape, with the two vertical arms presenting a scalloped edge, and the two horizontal arms being almost entirely smooth, except for a slight waisted effect placed at approximately 50% of the distance from the centre.

The central sub-rectangular area is taken up almost entirely by a moulded zoomorphic decoration, possibly a horse or hare. The creature has long ears with rounded ends, which arise from a bulbous forehead with bulging eye sockets. This narrows before flaring to a nose and muzzle which appears steeply triangular in cross section, but has a globular appearance from above. The reverse is plain and undecorated.

These strap fittings, used to distribute straps at joining points, demonstrate the clear influence of Anglo-Scandinavian styles, and BERK-D78F37 is a very similar example, with another long-eared beast as its focal point. The date for both artefacts can be securely considered to be the 11th century AD. WMID-010C96 presents a different form of strap fitting, which is nonetheless similar, and that record states that:

"Similar examples are illustrated in Williams, D, 1997, 'Late Saxon Stirrup-Strap Mounts: A Classification & Catalogue', page 5, plate 1, which were found together with a number of stirrups, a stirrup strap mount, weapons and brooches at a burial site at Kvalsta, Bergs parish in Västermanland, central Sweden. Williams also states that it was noted at the time of the burial site's excavation that the similar engraved style of ornamentation on a mount and these similar harness component examples were Anglo-Danish and foreign to central Sweden."

These finds are unusual in the South West of England, and this is certainly the first one of its type to be found in Devon.

Measurements: 37.4mm length, 32.8mm width, 7.21mm thick, weight 13.59g