File:Early-medieval gold bulla pendant (FindID 563598).jpg

English: Description: Bulla pendant made from a single piece of gold. Both faces are circular and slightly domed, with narrow flat flanges around the edges which are tightly pressed, perhaps soldered, together. They are linked by a strip 3.1mm wide which was bent round to form a suspension loop; this loop is identically decorated on both faces. It is clear that the decoration of the loop was done before cutting out the metal, as in the centre (at the top) there are four ridges and three grooves, but towards the base of the loop, as the metal flares slightly, there are six or even seven grooves. On each face, the grooves stop just beyond a horizontal marking-out groove.

Both faces of the pendant are thus identical in design and manufacture, and both are now slightly crushed.

Dimensions: Length 19.0mm, width 13.7mm. Thickness at suspension loop 4.5mm, current thickness of body of pendant 3.6mm. Weight 1.9g.

Discussion: Bulla pendants take their name from the Latin for 'bubble'. They are more normally flat-backed, perhaps in origin imitating gem-set cabochon pendants. Double-sided examples are more usually made from silver, making this a fairly unusual example. A gold bulla, domed on both sides, was found on a necklace in grave 23 at Winchester Lower Brook Street, but was about half the size (Biddle 1990, 621-7). The closest example known to this one can in fact be found on the PAS database, SWYOR-2B14B6

Date: Bulla pendants appear to be most common in the second half of the 7th century AD (Geake 1997, 36-7).