horse-harness(?);
strap-fitting
- Museum number
- 1923,0716.122
- Description
-
Silver strap attachment with circular front and back-plates linked at base by large loop securing heavy gun-metal ring of thick rod (broken in two); strap-distributor; two domed-head attachment rivets with gilt silver sheet overlay; no 127 may belong; from horse-harness?.
Andrási 2008
The copper-alloy (gunmetal) ring is slightly oval and made from a rod of solid circular section.
Each of the two strap-attachments (also 1923,0716.127) is made from a single, thick strip of rectangular-sectioned silver. It is in the shape of two discs of equal size linked by a long strip. This is bent to form a loop linking the front and back-plates. They are attached by their loops to the copper-alloy (gunmetal) ring.
The front and back-plates are connected by two silver, dome-headed attachment-rivets, each with a gilt-silver sheet overlay folded around the head. The end of each rivet is burred over to secure the back-plate.
The copper-alloy ring is broken and distorted; it was originally closed. One or two other attachment-fittings are probably missing.
From a horse-harness?
- Production date
- 4thC(late)-5thC(early)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 44 - 54 millimetres (ring)
-
Length: 24 millimetres (strap-attachment)
-
Weight: 45.77 grammes
-
Weight: 5.46 grammes
-
Width: 16 millimetres
-
Percentage: 91 % of rim (silver (strap-attachment))
- Curator's comments
- Andrási 2008
The original photograph of the collection does not show this object.
A silver horse-harness set found in the Crimea contained a similar strap-distributor, but with three attachment fittings.[1] This grave also contained a decorated mount like 1923,0716.23-5, buckles like 1923,0716.123-7 and mounts similar to 1923,0716.104-7. The question is whether they can possibly be related to each other (see further 1923,0716.16 & 123). Aibabin dates them to the second half of the 3rd century.[2]
Snaffles with similar fittings of bronze and iron, but with only one central attachment-rivet, have been found in a grave at Kislovodsk (north Caucasus), which Ruchin considers it to be a chieftain’s burial of the end of the 4th/beginning of the 5th century.[3]
Comparative bibliography
1. Shkorpil V.V. 1910, Zametka a rel‘efe na pamyatnike s nadpis‘yu Yevpateriya. IAK 37, 33; ills 13–15. He also refers to another similar set in the Museum of Kerch – see footnote 3
2. Aibabin in Andrási 2008 pp.141-150
3. Runich A.P. 1976, Zakhoronenie vozhdya epokhi rannego srednevekov’ya iz Kislovodskoi kotloviny. SA, 1976 - 3, 265; ill. 4:3–5
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1923
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1923,0716.122