COMPLETE ROMAN MILITARY BUCKLE !!!

[CRUSADER]

Today we had to return to the field Cru'dad got the Extremely Rare hammered from. This was our farewell trip to the field before its sold for housing. Its been a really good field to us with over 500 recordable items dating from every period starting in the Neolithic. A rare beast of a field! Although it has all periods covered the actual settlement was only during the Middle Saxon, with a big central halled house which will be fully excavated before the diggers start.
We decided to grid for 5 hours over the area Cru'dad had already done as my detector goes deeper & we have had rain recently. Including most of today! Glad we did, as we picked up lots of good finds;

Lead Medieval Button
US Air Force Enlisted Cap Badge (A first!)
A strange shovel shaped spoon bowl with holes Any ideas?
Lead Cloth Seal
Georgian Pan/Trade Weight
3 Jettons - 1 Nice one I need
1 Rose Farthing
17th C Token (Farthing)
Counter-stamped Halfpenny
2 Roman Coins
3rd-4th C AD Roman Military Buckle (My first complete example, other than the iron pin!) UPDATE: It maybe medieval, see below from a Roman Buckle expert;
''great buckle and thanks for sending me a photo.
I suspect though that it may medieval rather than Roman. There is a category of medieval buckle that has openwork buckle plates like that which are so similar to late Roman ones. The three projections off the buckle plate and the shape of the buckle itself make me think this is probably medieval rather than late Roman.''
Further research shows the experts are split on this rare type!

 

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[CRUSADER]

Just awesome
What's this Romulus and Remus coin?

4th C Roman Coin.

 

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[CRUSADER]

How did this buckle survived? Deep plough and fresh on top? Amazing find Cru. Big congrats!

We are pretty sure the Archies dug it up from depth when doing the trenches. They really helped out on this field.

 

[CRUSADER]

That’s probably one of the best finds I’ve ever seen posted on Treasurenet. Absolutely incredible find! Was the buckle off to the side of the field or right in direct plow strike area?

Congrats, that buckle is a banner above banners. I hope to see it up top soon.

Steve

Before they can build houses they have to at least do an Archie evaluation of the land. In this case it included about 30 trenches. We gave them all Cru'dad's GPS data to include in their report. They decided based on what they found that they would need to be a full excavation before building happens. Very expensive for the developers. Depending what Archie service they use we may get involved like we did on the first one. We recorded & handed over many finds, probably 95% of their recorded metal work.

It was this first piece of work that brought up the buckle from depth.

 

[CRUSADER]

Congrats on the buckle. If you're excited about it then it must be something special. Do you know what purpose it served on the uniform? I really like the Romulus & Remus coin. But you seem nonchalant about that one, so I'm guessing it's common.

It held the sword belt.

Yes, very common type.

 

[CRUSADER]

Wow, that is indeed a nice buckle, congrats! Sweet patina on that jetton too. Have you ever found letters/fragments from the Roman VTERE FELIX belts?

Nope.

 

[sprailroad]

Ah, when they grade the field to build, wonder where all the dirt will be taken to

 

[Rookster]

All are nice finds. The buckle is really nice.

 

[DocBeav]

That is incredible! Congrats CRUSADER!

 

[Silvermonkey]

What magnificent finds. That buckle is stunning! Congratulations.

 

[WHADIFIND]

Not bad! Not bad at all!
(For hunting in a "museum")

 

[CRUSADER]

Congrats on the buckle. If you're excited about it then it must be something special. Do you know what purpose it served on the uniform? I really like the Romulus & Remus coin. But you seem nonchalant about that one, so I'm guessing it's common.

It's the most common one we find with this being the 343rd since 2008.

 

[CRUSADER]

Ah, when they grade the field to build, wonder where all the dirt will be taken to

Normally built into a feature bank with trees planted in it.

 

[gwdigger]

Terrific find. I can't believe its not broken. Lucky!

 

[CRUSADER]

UPDATE;

''great buckle and thanks for sending me a photo.
I suspect though that it may medieval rather than Roman. There is a category of medieval buckle that has openwork buckle plates like that which are so similar to late Roman ones. The three projections off the buckle plate and the shape of the buckle itself make me think this is probably medieval rather than late Roman.''

I need to research Medieval Buckles now as I was looking for Roman & couldn't find a match. It's a kind of shame, as I have plenty of complete medieval types & no complete Roman ones, & now I still don't. Oh well, it is what it is!

FURTHER RESEARCH;

It must be a rare type as I looked at 26,000 records on the PAS & there is NO MATCH, but the closest is this;
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/720364
It references Nigel Mills book which I have (Knew I had seen this buckle), & in there he dates it as Roman. It seems the debate is out on these. Either way I now know I have an extremely rare buckle type.

 

[Westfront]

Not an expert, but on first sight i would never say medieval. In fact i had bet money on roman. Please update because if medieval it must be a type i would never expect to find in UK. Thinking Merowingian, Goth....

 

[CRUSADER]

Not an expert, but on first sight i would never say medieval. In fact i had bet money on roman. Please update because if medieval it must be a type i would never expect to find in UK. Thinking Merowingian, Goth....

Nigel Mills thinks Roman, and I can't find any medieval with that type of open-work. I'm already convinced its very rare what-ever because Cru'dad went throw all the Roman PAS records without a hit & I just checked all the Medieval!

 

[ecmjamsit]

Look at it with a magnifier and see if you can find any letters/ numerals. I thought I saw something on one of the extensions. Maybe I'm just being wishful.

 

[Westfront]

Nigel Mills thinks Roman, and I can't find any medieval with that type of open-work. I'm already convinced its very rare what-ever because Cru'dad went throw all the Roman PAS records without a hit & I just checked all the Medieval!

There are buckles of the early 5th C. with similar style of openwork found in Le Mont, Swiss and Champdolent, France.

 

[CRUSADER]

Look at it with a magnifier and see if you can find any letters/ numerals. I thought I saw something on one of the extensions. Maybe I'm just being wishful.

View attachment 1571908

It's just a line of single dot decoration.
Thanks for the interest I missed that!

 

[romeo-1]

That's one of the coolest things I've seen posted in a while! Well found!