File:Iron Age sword belt fitting (FindID 520586).jpg

English: Cast copper alloy sword belt fitting dating from the Late Iron Age or early Roman period, that is c. 0-AD200. The fitting is complete and undamaged and in extremely good condition. It is composed of a D-sectioned ring with a moulded decoration at the bottom. In addition, the is a moulded knop at the bottom, just below of the mould /\-shape. Between the diagonal mouldings of the /\ is a tear- or eye-shaped moulding and the knop below resembles one half of a Late Iron Age/early Roman dumbell mount/toggle. There is a further two complete dumbell-shaped mounts in the centre of the ring, each of their round terminals separated by two reel-shaped mouldings and one central moulding resembling a thin melon-bead. Michael Marshall (Finds Specialist at the Museum of London) suggests that small dumbell-shaped mounts or toggles are very reminiscent of a series of Iron Age / Roman toggles which are commonly found in the north of England but are also found more widely.He argues that this design/motif is used as part of an openwork design in quite a similar fashion on a strap junction in the the hoard from Middlebie, Dumfries and Galloway of horse and sword fittings (Macgregor 1976, no. 33). Here it is combined with petal shape motifs typical of boss style metal work (similar to your other sword belt fitting). This too is a Late Iron Age / Early Roman deposit dating to the first or second century AD. There is no evidence to tightly date the hoard but it is probably c AD 40 - 160. The cross hatched band around the middle of the dumbell / baluster moulding is is also somewhat reminiscent of the terminals of a torc or armlet from the Roman fort at Newstead, Borders (ibid, no. 221) although there it appears to have been incised rather than moulded. The fort was occupied from the late first century AD (Agricolan campaigns) and again in the 2nd century AD. Marshall argues further that while these objects have previously been associated with horse/cart fittings (e.g. Macgregor, M 1976, Early Celtic Art in Northern Britain, Volume 2, no 16) there is now good reason to believe that they are in fact sword belt fittings. Two similar objects were found in close association with the Late Iron Age sword from Asby Scar, Cumbria, and are interpreted as such by Ian Stead (2006) in British Iron Age Swords and Scabbards, 265, fig 99). This identification is also followed by Fraser Hunter in his recent work on Central British metalwork (2007 in Haselgrove and Moore eds).

References

Macgregor, M (1976) Early Celtic Art in Northern Britain Leicester University Press