Anglo-Saxon copper alloy harness fitting from feature 208, SJS 76-82, St John's Street, Winchester.

Copper alloy harness fitting

Anglo-Saxon, about AD 600

Found during excavations by Winchester Museums Service Archaeology Section at St John's Street, Winchester, in 1976

This fitting for horse harness was cast, and bears decoration in the form of two animals curled up nose to tail, and interlace. Finds from the earlier part of the Anglo-Saxon period are quite rare in Winchester itself, as the Roman town was no longer used, and waiting, derelict, to be refurbished in the late Saxon period by Alfred the Great.