English: Gilded silver fragment of middle Anglo-Saxon date, perhaps a pin head. Treasure case no. 2011T584.

Description: Fragment of silver, decorated on both faces with differing motifs, but gilded on only one. Both faces have motifs made up of grooves, and some of the grooves are coincident. Most of the fragment's edges are formed from coincident grooves, and so it is very hard to tell if they are original and deliberate, or whether it has been broken at these thin and fragile grooves; this question is addressed further below.

The gilded face has niello inlay in the grooves. It has a pattern of ribbon interlace, with a circular band around what may have been the centre. This circular band interlaces with eight strands which probably originally curved out and looped round to form four arms, potentially of a cross; two of these arms survive complete (an adjacent pair). A further strand emerges from within each complete looped arm and runs round what appears to be the angular corner of a reserved square, although only really the inner line of the band is angled; the outside is curved. The curved edges of the arms and one of the squarer corners survive and appear under the microscope to be original, with smoothly curved arrises covered with gilding. The other edges look damaged and broken.

The ungilded face has no trace of niello. In the centre is a cross with short arms and curved angles. Around this, the four arms extend to form cross-arms. The surviving two arms are cut across at the base by the inner of two circular grooves which are both concentric to the central cross and coincident with the inner and outer edges of the circular band on the gilded face. The most complete arm then flares to end in a rounded lobe; the other side arm then splits into three, the outer two of which are cut by the outer of the two circular grooves as well as the inner. There are two further similar flaring and round-ended lobes which spring from the inner angles of the central cross, and they are also cut by both circles. The design can therefore be reconstructed as a symmetrical 12-petalled flower based on a central cross, with the petals interlacing with a circular band to make four of the petals more prominent, to form an extension of the arms of the cross. Essentially, the two faces have been decorated with different cross motifs which use some of the same grooves as each other.

Dimensions: Length c. 19mm (along the best-surviving arms of the cross); width c. 11 mm (perpendicular to this) and 0.5-0.6mm thick. Weight 0.5g.

Discussion: The function of this object is hard to assess. It is unlikely to have been a hooked tag or a pendant, due to the decoration occurring on both faces. It may possibly have been a pin head (compare one from Flixborough, Webster and Backhouse (eds) 1991, no. 69f, and another from West Lindsey, NLM-B4B904), with the shaft having been torn away and taking part of the head with it.

The broad ribbon interlace on the gilded face is similar to broad ribbons found in enamelling and manuscript art from the late 7th/early 8th century onwards (Youngs 1995, 40-45). Examples include hanging bowl mounts from Dunnington and Whitby, both north Yorkshire (Bruce-Mitford 2005, nos. 99 and 101) and WMID-1EFF72.

The interlacing cross arms on the ungilded face recall examples from middle Anglo-Saxon hooked tags, such as Read (2008) nos. 66 and 73-75. For two silver examples with niello inlay on the PAS database, see SF-1EFD68 and KENT-AB7CA4, both dated to the 8th or 9th century; there is also a gilded silver example at SOM-F575C7. This motif is, however, long-lived, also occurring in the 11th century on objects such a harness link (WILT-3E6E46) and a socketed hook (BUC-1C1BB6).

Date: From the parallels, the date-range is likely to be late 7th to 11th century.

References

Read, B. 2008. Hooked-Clasps and Eyes­

Youngs, S. 1995. 'Medium and motif: polychrome enamelling and early manuscript decoration in insular art' in C. Bourke (ed) From the Isles of the North: early medieval art in Ireland and Britain, 37-47.