- Museum number
- 1923,0716.123
- Description
-
Silver buckle; oval faceted loop; faceted tongue (now missing); semi-circular plate with flanged edge; folded flap attachment and back-plate (now missing); two domed-head attachment rivets; from a horse-harness?
Andrási 2008
Base silver buckle with a semicircular attachment-plate with a flanged edge. Oval, faceted loop and faceted tongue.
The semicircular attachment-plate is base silver. The front plate has a flanged edge projecting from the back. The flange is deeper at the centre and narrows towards the loop.
The front and back-plates are linked by the folded flap attachment and made from the same sheet. The folded flap attachment is rectangular with a slot cut into the centre to accommodate the buckle-tongue.
The back-plate is formed by hammering and cutting to the same size and shape as the front.
There are three silver dome-headed attachment-rivets on the front, the ends of which are flattened to fasten the back-plate, thereby gripping the leather.
The loop is oval with a faceted, octagonal section. It narrows from the centre towards the ends, where it is secured by the folded flap attachment. .
The tongue is faceted and has a trapezoidal section. Its pointed end bends over the loop and there is a plain rectangle at the base, where it is attached by folding its base around the loop.
The back-plate is imperfect.
- Production date
- 4thC(late)-5thC(early)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 28 millimetres
-
Weight: 10.20 grammes
-
Thickness: 7 millimetres
-
Width: 26 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Andrási 2008
Published: Germanen, Hunnen und Awaren. Schätze der Völkerwanderungszeit. Verlag des Germanischen Nationalmuseum. (Nuremburg 1987) 1987, (Kidd) 113, ill. I,18.d.
The original photograph of the collection does not show this object.
The buckles (1923,0716.125-127) in the Berthier-Delagarde Collection belong to the same basic type, although they differ slightly from each other. The main characteristics are the semicircular attachment-plate, dome-headed rivets with sheet overlay in some cases, and oval loops. Small buckles with dome-headed rivets, but with oval attachment-plates, are very typical of the Late-Roman period. It is possible that the Berthier-Delagarde buckles represent a special variant within the same main type.
Similar buckles with oval attachment-plates have been found in the Kishpek chamber graves (North Caucasus), and are considered by Aibabin to be Sarmatian of the end of the 3rd/beginning of the 4th century.[1] Betrozov [2] and Bóna [3] regard them as Hunnic, Betrozov dating them to the 4th–5th century and Bóna to the beginning of the 5th. Similar buckles of copper alloy and silver have been found in the Turaevo cemetery (Kama region) and are dated to the end of the 4th–5th century by Gening,[4] as are those from the Ural region (Brodovsk) by Goldina and Vodolago.[5] Quast gives a similar dating and regards them as shoe-buckles.[6] Silver buckles of this type from a disturbed grave at Timoshevskaya-Stanitsa (Kuban region) are dated to the 3rd–4th century by Pósta on the basis of an associated, repoussé-decorated buckle.[7] Similar silver buckles from the Black Sea region are published as part of a horse-harness set by Shkorpil, who refers to another similar set in the Museum of Kerch.[8]
The above-mentioned buckles from Kishpek and the Black Sea region form parts of horse-harness sets with similar mounts to cat. nos 31–43; the buckle from the Kuban region can also be related to this cultural circle. It is therefore possible that our buckles belong to a similar horse-harness set, or to be more precise, to the mounts (1923,0716.17-28) in the collection. Further, the strap-distributor (1923,0716.122&127) and the mounts (1923,0716.103-107) could also be parts of the same set, since there are some similarities in their techniques of manufacture. The similarities with the strap-distributor and mounts from the horse-harness set published by Shkorpil also make this possible.
Comparative Bibliography
1. Aibabin in Andrási 2008 pp.141-150
2. Betrozov R.Z. 1980, Zakhoronenie vozhdya gunnskogo vremeni u sel. Kishpek v Kabardino Balkarii. Severny Kavkaz v drevnosti v srednie veka (Moscow), 113–22, pl. 3:6
3. Bóna I. 1991, Das Hunnenreich (Budapest-Stuttgart). 182–3, ill. 70, 264 no. 70; 1993, 156–7, ill. 70, 238 no. 70.
4. Gening V.F. 1976, Turaevskii mogil‘nik V v. n.e. Iz arkheologii Volgo-Kam‘ya. Kazan, 77, ills 27 and 32; Gening V.F. 1979, Khronologiya poyasnoi garnitury I tisyacheletiya n.e. (po materialam mogil‘nikov Prikam‘ya). KSIA 158, 96–106., 96–106
5. Goldina R.D. and Vodolago N.V. 1990, Mogil’niki Nevolinskoi Kultury v Priural’e. Izdatel’stvo Irkutskogo Universiteta, Irkutsk, 10–13; 20; pls XXV:13;15; LXV:1;8;16;25
6. Quast D. 1993, Die merowingerzeitlichen Grabfunde aus Gültlingen (Stadt Wildberg, Kreis Calw). Stuttgart, 83–4, 86; ill. 48a-c
7. Pósta B. 1905, Régészeti tanulmányok az Oroszföldön. Archäologische Studien auf russische Boden II. Budapest/Leipzig, 383–4, ill. 224:3
8. Shkorpil V.V. 1910, Zametka a rel‘efe na pamyatnike s nadpis‘yu Yevpateriya. IAK 37, 33, ill. 15
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1988 12 Mar-15 May, Germany, Frankfurt, Kunsthalle Shirn Am Römerberg, Germanen, Hunnen und Avaren
1987 12 Dec-1988 21 Feb, Germany, Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Germanen, Hunnen und Avaren
- Acquisition date
- 1923
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1923,0716.123
