File:Late Roman buckle (front and back views) (FindID 144094).jpg

English: An incomplete cast copper alloy zoomorphic late Roman 'dolphin' buckle, dating to the 4th/ 5th century AD (length: 22.5mm; width: 39.5mm; thickness: 3mm; weight: 6.5g). The flat 'dolphin' decorated section of the buckle is all that remains of this artefact. There are two zoomorphic and arched dolphin heads grasping a lozenge-shaped feature in between their open mouths with their top lips slightly curled. Both of the heads have a crest decorated with small incised lines. The artefact is too worn to identify any other decoration. The back of the buckle is flat and undecorated. Overall, the artefact is in a worn but fair condition with a dark green patina.

Other buckles of this type are illustrated in Bushe-Fox, J, P, 1949, 'Fourth Report on the Excavations of the Roman Fort at Richborough, Kent', pages 122-3; Plate XXXII, ref nos 67-9.

Similar examples have also been recorded on the PAS database, including two found in Osbournby, Lincolnshire (LIN-065D25) and Friston, Suffolk (SF-76D876). Another example also recorded on the database and found at Langtoft, Humberside (NLM-1278F5) is also illustrated in the Portable Antiquities Scheme Annual Report 2004/05, page 49, ref no 73. It is stated in the annual report that 'these buckles.....have important implications with regard to our understanding of the end of Roman Britain.....it is only by looking at where the belt fittings are being found in Britain that we can begin to understand their significance. In the past much has been made of the mlitary nature of these finds but the finds recorded by the PAS suggest that they are concentrated in the civilian areas of Britain and are rare in the military zone.'