Hawkes and Dunning identified the first of this group (1). Certainly the long thin plate looks right for the period, but stylistically, apart form this, the group is very unusual, with little in common with any of the other buckles we are looking at. Two more buckles (2, 3) in this category have since come to light, but unfortunately have done little to add to our understanding of how they relate to other buckle developments.

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LM 3.1	LM 3.2	LM 3.3

The means of attachment, by bar, has something in common with earlier buckles (4) and may be an archaising feature of the sort we have discussed elsewhere. The same could be true of the crescent shape. Compare with 5 and 6.

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LM 3.4	LM 3.5	LM 3.6

However, the zoomorphic elements, such as they are, seem to have more in common with later Saxon examples (7, 8, 9). So too do the red glass inlaid ?eyes? on one example. In terms of distribution, all three buckles come from an area of central and western England, that has been linked with a group of possibly early Germanic settlers, known as the Gewissae but it would probably be unwise on the present meagre evidence to link these buckles with that group specifically.

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LM 3.7	LM 3.8	LM 3.9

NOTES
3.1 Length 90mm, found Upper Upham, Wilts., redrawn after Hawkes & Dunning; 3.2 Width 26mm, found Berkshire, collection of Brian Cavill; 3.3 Width 27mm, found Kelmscott, Oxon., formerly collection of Brian Cavill; 3.4 Width 20mm, found not known collection of Brian Cavill; 3.5 Width 25mm, found East Anglia, redrawn after Mills (RB190); 3.6 Width not known, found not known, redrawn after eBay; 3.7 Width 25mm, found not known, collection of Brian Cavill; 3.8 Width 24mm, found not known, collection of Brian Cavill; 3.9 Width 29mm, found not known, collection of Brian Cavill.

REFERENCES
Hawkes S.C. & Dunning G.C. - Soldiers & Settlers in Britain, Fourth to Fifth Century - Medieval Archaeology 5 (1961)
Mills N. - Celtic & Roman Artefacts (2000)

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