Description (CMS Description)
Bronze strap-end or belt-end with patterned textile still adhering to reverse. Strap-end is fashioned of thin bronze, one end broken away. Obverse is plain; reverse still has stud projecting through, from which the textile fragment is anchored. Textile is a tablet woven braid with diamond pattern.
Event Date 17/8/2015
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
(Bib): Owen-Crocker, G.R. 2004. Dress in Anglo-Saxon England. p. 151-152, Pl. 6
Event Date 17/8/2015
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (CMS Context)
(Bib): Rogers, P.W. 2007. Cloth and Clothing in Early Anglo-Saxon England: AD 450-700. York: Council for British Archaeology. p. 125
Event Date 17/8/2015
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (CMS Context)
(Bib): Collingwood, P. 2002. The Techniques of Tablet Weaving. McMinnivelle: Robin & Ross Handweavers, Inc. pp. 16, 122
Event Date 17/8/2015
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (CMS Context)
(Bib): Crowfoot, G.M. 1951. 'Textiles of the Saxon Period in the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology'. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, vol. 44. pp. 28-30, Pl. VIa, Fig. 2
Event Date 17/8/2015
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (CMS Context)
Helen Geake is not the only scholar to note that this strap-end may not, in fact, be Anglo-Saxon. Penelope Walton Rogers (see Bib) also suggests that it is medieval, noting that 'the technique of the patterned linen strap, with staggered rotation of the tablets, is a standard in late medieval linen girdles' and goes on to say that this is the only known example of a threaded-in-band used as a belt in the Anglo-Saxon era. If this is the case, then the confusion may stem from this object being mis-attributed to the accession number and, therefore, to the St John's Cricket Field cemetery. It is, after all, not explicitly mentioned in the accession register entry as part of the idno, although Crowfoot had already identified it as from St John's by 1951. However, the amount of time between the excavation in the early 1880s and Crowfoot's publication gives plenty of time for confusion to have arisen. In that case, the strap-end's provenance is therefore unknown.
Event Date 17/8/2015
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (CMS Context)
See 2004.189 and 2005.303 as replicas of the tablet weaving fragment. The latter was made by Shelagh Lewis, but the maker of the former is currently unknown.
Event Date 17/8/2015
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (CMS Context)
Old, handwritten display label found with idno reads: 'ANGLO-SAXON. Fragments of woven cloth of two kinds; upper piece has a decorative pattern. From a cinerary urn St. John's Cricket-Field.' It is possible that one pieces of the woven cloth is Z 27384 G and that the one with the decorative pattern is Z 27384 H, but the wording is slightly unclear.
Event Date 17/8/2015
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (CMS Context)
This strap-end is not explicitly listed in the accession register entry or catalogue card for Z 27384. However, the former entry includes 'etc.' under which it could fall, or it may have been considered to be part of the 'cloth'. Crowfoot's publication (see Bib) was apparently published before this object was given an accession number, probably sometime in the 1970s, but gives its context as St John's Cricket Field without any ambiguity.
Event Date 17/8/2015
Author: Imogen Gunn

Context (CMS Context)
The small fragment of bronze is a belt end, long assumed to be Anglo Saxon but according to Helen Geake may in fact be Medieval. 26/7/2004 A.Taylor
Event Date 17/8/2015
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Copper alloy strap end or belt end with a fragment of patterned textile attached to reverse with rivet. Strap-end is thin and plain with one end broken away. Textile is a tablet woven braid of very pale blue green colour, with repeated diamond pattern; diamonds outlined in white with one complete diamond in the centre and a white line along each side.
Event Date 4/11/2020
Author: Emily Shorter