For a 3D model of Buckle B made by the Virtual Curation Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University, see https://skfb.ly/oHKUN.
Two Bronze Buckles
AWG0000.03.07A and .07B
Roman, Roman or Medieval period (ca. 100-1200 CE)
Material: Bronze
Weight: Buckle A: 11g - Buckle B: 9g
Dimensions: Buckle A: 0.2-0.5cm thick, 0.1-0.8cm wide - Buckle B: 0.3cm thick, 0.3-0.4cm wide, 0.3cm diameter
Condition: Buckle A: Fair; tiny bit of gilding remains and the part that swings/swivels is cracked and fragile - Buckle B: Good; slight corrosion in some areas
Provenance: Unknown
Source/donor: From the collection of Stuart L. Wheeler
Date of acquisition: Prior to 1990
Other notes: Match descriptions of SW 003 and 004 (Roman Buckles) on 1990 list entitled “Pieces on loan from the collection of Stuart L. Wheeler”
Research by: Danny Saravia Romero, ’23
Detailed description of form/shape:
Buckle A: Bronze single loop semi-circular bow-shaped buckle. Ornate outside edge. Narrowed and offset bar with lobes at each end. The curved side of the buckle is flat, with a separate cylindrical pin rest (broken) that rotates around the center.
Buckle B: Double loop buckle frame
Detailed description of decoration:
Traces of gilded residue remain in the crevices of the lobes and on the flat side near the pin rest.
Comparanda:
Similar buckles found in the United Kingdom and recorded in the Portable Antiquities Scheme database are dated to the Roman or Medieval period. For examples to Buckle A, , see buckles NARC-C3AC72, WILT-741DAF, and BERK-ED2E37. For the rotating pin rest, compare the Medieval buckle WILT-DDE14C. For an example similar to Buckle B, see DENO-4B3CD6, also dated to the Medieval era.
Discussion:
As stated in the Portable Antiquities Scheme guide to recording buckle finds: “A buckle is used for fastening two straps together (or two ends of a single strap, such as a belt). It consists of a frame through which the strap passes, and a pin which is pushed through a hole in the strap. A buckle frame may be directly fixed to the strap, or the buckle may have a plate attaching the frame to the strap” (Flynn and Speed).
Some of the earliest buckles are dated to the Roman period, when they were initially used in military contexts, mainly by soldiers to strap their body armor together. These buckles are usually found in graves of said soldiers (Hawkes and Dunning 6). As the Portable Antiquities Scheme finds guide summarizes: “The object type appears to have been brought to Britain in the early Roman period on military equipment, but only became popular as a method of fastening straps in the civilian world from the late Roman period onwards. The Latin word for ‘buckle’ is buccula, which comes from the Latin word for ‘cheek,’ bucca, and probably results from buckles having been first invented to fasten the chinstraps of helmet cheekpieces” (Flynn and Speed).
Buckles found in archaeological excavations are often accompanied by a metal strap end. The strap ends may have functioned as stiffeners for the ends of broad military belts (Hawkes and Dunning 6).
Buckles were not only used in a functional sense but also as a decorative element. Many Roman buckles contain animal designs, such as dolphins or birds; however, the ones in our collection are fairly simple. Some of the finer examples have geometric decoration executed in 'chipcarved' work, in addition to the characteristic animal heads (Hawkes and Dunning 10). The use of animal-head lobes is also a late antique fashion. This style has generally been attributed to the influence of Germanic tastes in late Roman provincial art (Hawkes and Dunning 11).
Bibliography:
Flynn, Thomas, and Lauren Speed. “Buckles.” Finds Recording Guides, Portable Antiquities Scheme. Last modified February 5, 2020. https://finds.org.uk/counties/findsrecordingguides/buckles/.
Hawkes, Sonia Chadwick, and G. C. Dunning. "Soldiers and settlers in Britain, fourth to fifth century: with a catalogue of animal-ornamented buckles and related belt-fittings." Medieval Archaeology 5, no. 1 (1961): 1-70.
Hawkes, Sonia. “Some Recent Finds of Late Roman Buckles.” Britannia 5 (1974): 386–93. https://doi.org/10.2307/525745.
Meredith, Gillian, and Alan Meredith. Buckles. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011.