Silver Anglo-Saxon pyramidal scabbard belt fitting, late 6th-early 7th AD, found by metal detector at Pudding Farm, Headbourne Worthy, Hampshire. Decoration on each of the four faces consists of three interlocking triangles with gilding, separated by a pair of broad bands, each flanked by a single groove. There is a small square cell at the top of the mount. The mount is hollow, and has been half excavated of soil to reveal the bar which runs across the base of the mount. Silver content 94%.
Silver scabbard belt fitting
Anglo-Saxon, late 6th-early 7th century AD
Unearthed with a metal detector at Headbourne Worthy, Hampshire in 2003
This pyramidal fitting was used to fasten the leather straps that held the scabbard for a sword to its sword belt. The small cell at the top of this mount would once have held a setting, possibly a garnet. The loss of such a prestigious piece - perhaps by a Saxon nobleman travelling along the old road to Winchester from the north - would have been keenly felt.
