Gold belt buckle

Complete shield-on-tongue buckle with triangular buckle plate, the back secured to the front by three rivets with decorative boss mounts on the front face. The piece is in pristine condition and may have functioned as a reliquary, containing a fragment of bone or textile.

Gold buckle. [Enlarge buckle]

This form of buckle is a continental style that was also copied in Kent; it could, therefore, be an import, but was probably made in England. The fashion was most popular c.600-640, although they begin earlier and continue later than this. This is only the third example of a gold buckle from a burial of this date in England (the others are from Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, and Taplow, Bucks).

Special resources

On-site video: gold buckle. [.mov format, 35 secs, 1.1mb]

Format and requirements: If you do not have the plug-in please visit http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ to download the plug-in for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Mac OS X or Mac OS 8.6/9.)

3D reconstruction of the gold buckle [embedded java, 475kb]

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