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Details
LOT 1271
Anglo-Saxon Gilt Bronze Horse Harness Mount
6TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.
1 3/8 in. (6.4 grams, 35 mm).
Composed of a pelta-shaped body with broad border, central panel of dense Style II ornament, three studs to the reverse. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Ex property of a gentleman; acquired in the 1970s.
Literature
Cf. Carver, M., Sutton Hoo. A Seventh Century Princely Burial Ground and its Context, London, 2005, item 25cii; Fern, C., ‘The Archaeological Evidence for Equestrianism in Early Anglo-Saxon England c.450-700' in Pluskowski, A. (ed.), Just skin and bones? New perspectives in Animal-Human relations in the Historical Past, 2005, pp.43-71.
Footnotes
The pelta-shaped body could be a part of a circular decorative phalera usually attached to the breast of the horse, or to the muzzle of the horse's head, or decoration of the harness mount of antilina or strap-junction of the postilina (Fern, 2005, fig.5.18). It was usually positioned at the bottom of the phalera.
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