English: An incomplete cast copper alloy openwork buckle plate or ‘tongue’, dating to the Early Medieval period, between AD 500 – 700 (length: 40mm; width: 27mm; thickness: 6.5mm; weight: 10.9g). This buckle is Type II.23b-ii, as classified by Marzinzik, S in British Series 357, 2003, ‘Early Anglo-Saxon Belt Buckles (late 5th to early 8th centuries AD): Their classification and context’, page 50, as described as part of ‘other buckles with triangular copper alloy or silver plate’.

The buckle plate or ‘tongue’ is an upside down ‘A’ shape in plan and is D-shaped in side section. At the top of the artefact, there is an incomplete rivet hole to the left and right at either end of the arms. At approximately half way down the A-shaped frame at either ends of a central bar to the left and right, there are two raised ridges with a groove in between. The outside frame of the plate or ‘tongue’ continues to taper inwards at a slanted angle, with both arms meeting at the opposing terminal end, which is a circular shaped platform in plan and D-shaped in side section (diameter: 15.5mm; thickness: 6.5mm). In the centre of this platform, there is a large iron rivet still intact. Although now badly corroded, the rivet would have originally been of the ‘dome-headed’ type. At the base of the circular platform where the two arms meet, there is a crudely incised line to either side. The back of the buckle plate or ‘tongue’ is flat and undecorated. Overall, the artefact is in a worn but fair condition with a patchy light green patina.

A similar example is illustrated in Marzinzik, 2002, page 452, plate 130. Marzinzik states that ‘triangular buckles are found all over the Anglo-Saxon settlement area, with the exception of Sussex and the East Midlands’ (page 50).