English: The object is a copper alloy buckle plate, probably dating to the medieval period, (mid-twelfth to sixteenth centuries); although an early medieval date cannot be ruled out. The buckle plate is complete.

In plan the object is small, sub-rectangular and narrow. The buckle plate was hammered from a single piece of copper alloy sheet; which was then folded in half to create a recess for a frame. Looking at the front of the object one can see that originally the plate was secured to a strap by a single iron rivet, which is sub-circular in plan and approximately 2.9mm in diameter. Today the rivet is broken (not recent break) in the centre and the strap is missing; both ends of the rivet however, remain in situ and are clearly visible. At the opposing end of the object a V-shaped slot has been removed for the pin. The slot is 5.3mm wide and 6.3mm deep. The front of the buckle plate is decorated with a crudely executed, engraved design which has been inlaid with a white metal alloy, most probably silver. The decoration consists of a small rectangular panel which is bordered by two traverse parallel lines. Looking from right to left; the design consists of a possible sub-oval shape, which is positioned so that its long axis is parallel to the long axis of the buckle plate. The oval is 4.8mm long and is 2.4mm wide. The outline of the oval is inlaid with silver, while the inside is undecorated. Above and slightly to the left of the first (larger oval) is a small pointed oval shape. The oval is positioned at a slight angle so that rather than being parallel to the larger oval shape below; the pointed oval extends upwards, beyond the upper boundary of the panel. This smaller pointed oval shape is 3.4mm long and 0.9mm wide. The interior is inlaid with silver. Both of the oval shapes are connected by a short, thinly incised diagonal line. To the left of this is a larger diagonal line which appears to partition the entire central panel. No other decoration is visible.

The reverse of the object is decorated by two parallel lines which extend traversely along the length of the buckle plate for approximately 5.6mm. The lower line is more pronounced and obvious whereas, the upper line is crudely executed, appearing more as an incision than definite decoration. Both are inlaid with silver. The outer edges of the object (except the edge where the slot has been removed) have a serrated appearance. This has been achieved by making a series of small (approximately 1.6mm) incised lines around the edge of the object. This particular type of decoration is restricted to the reverse of the object only.

The object is 19.5mm long, 8.3 mm wide, 1.7mm thick and weighs 1.2g. It is dark green in colour, in a good condition and has retained most of its original patina. The decoration on the front of the object is only partially visible due to iron corrosion products from the rivet covering some of the design. Examples of buckle plates with V-shaped slots are illustrated in Egan, G and Pritchard, F. 1991 Medieval Finds from Excavations in London: 3. Dress Accessories c.1150 – c.1450, HMSO, London; figs 45: 306 and 54: 380. However none of the buckle plates are similar to the recorded object.