File:Anglo-Saxon buckle plate (FindID 519384).jpg

English: An incomplete cast copper-alloy buckle plate of Anglo-Saxon date. It is missing part of the frame end and one side due to old breaks but is otherwise complete. The plate is flat, oval in form with triangular projections at the straight frame end and a slight lip around the outer edge of the back face resultant from the casting process. On the back face are three integrally cast lugs or loops that are flat, rectangular in form and with incomplete outer edges, one positioned at the centre of the outer edge and two evenly spaced at the frame end. The front face of the plate has extensive chip carved decoration and applied bosses. Separately cast dome-shaped bosses are positioned above, but slightly to one side of, each rear lug with integral rivets visible on the back face next to each of the lugs. One boss at the frame end appears to be a possible later replaceent or repair, while the other two slightly larger examples have chip carved decoration formed from a band of vertical grooves around their sides. On the plate surrounding the bosses is more extensive geometric and anthropomorphic decoration. This consists of an outer zig-zag border with similar zig-zag borders surrounding the bosses. An inner border of continuous z-shaped motifs runs around the inner edge of the zigzag border and each of the bosses, creating an almost triskele motif at the centre of the plate. The triskele motif has a grooved border, with a band of zig-zag decoration running between the two larger bosses. In the surviving complete arm of the triskele is anthropomorphic decoration comprising a human head that is oval shaped and formed from two concentric ovals at the centre of which are simple oval eyes connected at their base where they create a sub-rectangular nose, a crescentic, smiling mouth below. The remains of a second similar head are visible at the second arm of the motif but this is incomplete due to old breaks. The third arm, towards the frame end of the plate, is uncertain in both form and decoration due to extensive orange/brown encrustation. This extends over both front and back faces of the frame end of the plate and is probably resultant from the now missing frame and pin of the buckle, as well as potentially other encrusted and partially preserved materials such as leather (J. Hines, pers. comm.). Traces of an added white metal coating are visible on all surfaces of the front face. It measures 51.21mm in length, 46.40mm in surviving width, 1.69mm in thickness (3.66 mm at frame end including encrustation; 10.24mm at attachment end boss and lug), and 29.01g in weight.

This is an incomplete buckle plate of Anglo-Saxon date. It finds parallels in similar examples noted in the Ashmolean collections from Early-Medieval France (MacGregor, 1997: nos. 77.53-60), especially no. 77.53 that also carries anthropomorphic decoration in the form of a human head or face. These suggest a probable 7th century AD date, if not slightly later.