File:Anglo-Saxon buckle (FindID 526544).jpg

English: A cast copper-alloy bucke frame of Early-Medieval/Anglo-Saxon date. It is D-shaped in form and section with flat back face and rounded front face that has extensive chip carved decoration. The frame has a narrowed, D-sectioned rectangular bar and broad rectangular pin rest at the centre of the outer edge. On the front face of the frame running along each side from the pin rest to bar is a projecting panel of chip carved decoration. Each panel appears to carry stylised zoomorphic motifs that are roughly in Salin's Style I but may perhaps be an attempt at copying this decorative style rather than Style I proper (C. Scull, pers. comm.). Each panel has a raised border that is particularly prominent along the inner edge of the frame between the pin rest and bar, with an additional band of beaded decoration running inside the border and along this inner edge. Both panels are split into three distinct segments each containing elements of zoomorphic decoration. The first, closest to the pin rest, contains a broadly rectangular motif, possibly a stylised head, with circular indentation (eye?) and a series of three linear features that may represent the beak or neck, on one side also having diagonal notched decoration. The middle segment of each panel is roughly square in form and contains an S or zig-zag shaped motif that may represent an animal body. Finally, the third segment closest to the bar has what appears to be a limb with circular indentation at one end, elongated arm or leg and a series of three projecting lines that perhaps represent feet or claws. The entire object has a dark green patina that in places, particularly on the decorated surfaces, show signs of pale green copper-alloy corrosion. It measure 35.89mm in width, 27.21mm in length, 5.90mm in thickness and 19.05g in weight.

This buckle frame is of Anglo-Saxon date. It is similar to Marzinzik's Type I.5 buckle frames (Marzinzik, 2003: pp. 23-24, pls. 10-15) and finds parallels in an example recorded from Suffolk (SF-859C61) recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The decorative elements and parallels suggest that this buckle frame is likely to be of Early Anglo-Saxon date, probably from the late-5th to early-6th centuries AD.