244 (51)

215

Mounts

Arrow shaped

Copper alloy

1163    BWB83    2714    (329)    11    fig    134

9x45mm; solid; rivets missing.

Bars with a suspension loop

Copper alloy

These are all solid, with a loop at one end that has an expanded terminal at the back; (for mounts of this kind retaining pendent loops or arched pendants, see nos. 1189-93 and 1194-98).

1164    BWB83    2492    (351)    11    fig    134

5x22mm; groove with transverse hatching along each edge; one rivet survives.

1165    BWB83    5846    (298)    11

5.5x32mm; plain    groove along each edge.

The two preceding items are defmitely belt fittings, but the decoration on no. 1164 is almost identical to that on the binding mounts on a late-medieval casket (Cherry 1982, pl XXXVIII). The following two objects (which predate most of the bar-mounts listed above) are probably casket bindings - though no. 1166 in particular looks like a variation on the preceding strap mounts with a suspension loop. Here the broken loops are probably for lid hinges.

1166    BIG82    2842    (4064)    6    fig 134

Incomplete, slightly corroded; cast; copper, with one brass and one copper rivet (AML); 6x37mm; (?)loop broken off; two lobes, with tracę of decoration on one, and ridges to each side.

1167    BIG82    2926    (4103)    7    fig 134

Incomplete; 4.5x47mm; plain bar, (?)loop broken off; rivets missing. The bar has been distorted by knocking from each side.

SHORT STRAPS WITH TWO GROUPS OF MOUNTS (various shapes)

These seventeen distinctive leather straps have several common features: the mounts are set in two distinct groups towards each end, the strap between has a series of clumsily pierced holes along the centre, and is often very abraded in this area; one end usually has a folded fitting like a strap-end, and the other has either a large, crudely cut hole (sometimes with the leather from its centre left attached at one point, so as to form a crude tab), or another folded piąte. The variety of the mounts on the sixteen straps from a single late 14th-century dump at the BC72 site is extraordinary.

The length of the complete straps, the dis-position of the mounts, and the wear on some parts (eg on the plant mounts of no. 1186, fig 126, mount at right) seem to be consistent with the function of the spur straps which pass over the instep of the foot (David Home, pers. comm.). The two groups of mounts would thus be set on each side of the foot; where there were more-decorative ones at one end (as on no. 1186), these would probably be wom on the outer side, where they would be morę visible. No matching pairs of straps were recovered at the BC72 site (although nos. 1173 and 1174 have similar mounts, there are differences in the sizes of the strap and other details).

The degree of decoration on some of these items exceeds that on other identified spur straps from excavations. The present straps also include some wider than any others from the excavated assemblages which have so far been identified with spurs. While these points do not invalidate the suggested identification, they do reinforce the impression that these particular straps were out of the ordinary.

The sixteen straps from BC72 are from a group of dump deposits which is notable because of indications that the assemblage of finds it pro-duced is an unusually high-class one (see p 3). The assemblage could represent items discarded from a storę, perhaps from a well-endowed orga-nisation such as the nearby Great Wardrobe (Grew and de Neergard 1988, 29). Probably very few institutions would have owned such showy equipment for so many riders. It is possi-ble to speculate, therefore, that this group of materiał may include paradę items, bearing in mind the proximity of the storehouse of the extended royal household. Although not as spec-tacular, the assemblage from the TL74 site from which no. 1186 came perhaps also suggests a military milieu.

These items are included here because the forms of mounts they include may well also figurę