belt-buckle
- Museum number
- 1939,1010.1
- Title
-
Object: Great gold buckle
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Series: Sutton Hoo Ship Burial
- Description
-
Gold belt-buckle, hollow with cast ornament. The upper surface is covered entirely with zoomorphic interlace, the design picked out in tiny punched circles and inlaid (except on the loop) in niello. Three large plain hemispherical bosses connect with sliding catches on the back-plate, which opens on a hinge. Situated on either side of the boss at the tip of the buckle, two animals grip a smaller creature in their open jaws; on either side of the two, slightly smaller, upper bosses are two birds' heads with curved beaks. Between these is a circular plate which acts as a stop for the tongue of the buckle. This plate is decorated with a complex animal interlace; the tongue protruding from it is ridged and otherwise plain. The buckle loop has two panels of interlace, not nielloed, on the upper surface and the rest is plain. The buckle loop is hinged independently, and the tongue plate also moves on a separate swivel; basal disc.
- Production date
- early 7thC
- Dimensions
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Length: 13.20 centimetres
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Weight: 412.70 grammes
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Width: 5.60 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Niello analysed, cf.
W. A. Oddy, M. Bimson and S. La Niece , The Composition of Niello Decoration on Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Antique and Mediaeval Periods. In: Studies in Conservation, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Feb., 1983), pp. 29-35.
- Location
- On display (G41/dc1/sE)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2018-2019 19 Oct–19 Feb, London, British Library, Anglo-Saxon England
2006 25 Mar-29 Oct, Woodbridge, Sutton Hoo Visitor Centre, Great Gold Buckle
1980 10 Mar-30 Sep, Sweden, Stockholm, Statens Historika Museum, The Vikings are Here
- Acquisition date
- 1939
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1939,1010.1