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Roman iron sheath plate from dagger scabbard
Dagger in iron scabbard inlaid with silver. Mid-1st century A.D. Plate, slightly curved in cross-section, from a Type II sheath. The front face is decorated with engraved lines that are inlaid with silver wire. In outline it narrows from the mouth to the waist and then widens before tapering towards the point. There are four rectangular projections from the sides of the plate. These are in pairs, one pair flanking the mouth of the plate and the second pair just below the halfway point. Each projection is pierced with a vertical row of four holes to take the rivets that secured both this plate and suspension rings to the sheath. The decoration is laid out in a ‘four zone scheme’. Zone 1 is trapezoid with a border of three thin, parallel lines, filled between with lines of running crosses. In the centre a segmented roundel, which may have had a border of three concentric circles like that of the roundel in Zone 3. The field between the roundel and border of the panel was filled with diagonal hatching. Zone 2 is rectangular and bordered as Zone 1. It is divided into two square panels by a line of running crosses, flanked by two thin lines of inlay, and possibly originally by other lines of crosses. The two square panels each contained small roundels with what appears to be small crosses within them. The fields around the roundels is filled with diagonal hatching. Zone 3 is rectangular but otherwise similar in design to Zone 1. The roundel has a border of three concentric circles, the middle one of which is formed of wider inlay. Zone 4 is the triangular zone that fills the lower part of the plate. The decorative panel is bordered as the previous zones, with inlaid lines and running crosses. The upper part contained a small trapezoid panel with what appears to be a small cross, probably originally in a roundel much like those in the panels of Zone 2. The rest of the decoration is missing.
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Site Name: Usk Detention Centre, Usk
Notes: from fortress pit
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