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Early Byzantine Military Baldric Buckle
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Item Number: CA-15-569
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CULTURE / REGION OF ORIGIN: Byzantine Empire
DATE: 6th-7th Century AD
DIMENSIONS: 3.4 cm (1.33 in.) long
DESCRIPTION: Intact. A superb early Byzantine buckle from a baldric (a type of belt that was worn over one shoulder and continued to the opposite hip, normally for use with a sword or other piece of equipment). This example features the intact hinges at the rear end that would have attached it to a short metal plate, as well as the intact lugs on the underside that would have attached it to the leather. The upper surface is decorated with chip carved and punched designs of circles divided by vertical lines contained in a horizontal panel, as well as vertical lines and punched circles surrounding the roughly heart shaped open space in the center, and a zoomorphic animal head or face at the very top defined by two large circular “eyes.” Medium green patina with earthen highlights in the recessed areas and on the reverse.
PROVENANCE: Formerly in a German private collection.
COMPARISONS: See Christine Kondoleon, Antioch: The Lost Ancient City, Princeton University Press, 2000, page 85, figure 8 for a very similar example from Byzantine Antioch. |
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