File:Early-medieval , Mount (FindID 652588).jpg

Surface metal analysis conducted at the British Museum indicated an approximate silver content for the mercury gilded mount of 86%, with copper, tin, lead and zinc also detected. The mount weighs 4.82 grams.

The find is a silver-gilt mount cast in the form of a three-dimensional, half round man's head facing front, with a scroll-ended drooping moustache above an open mouth and a narrow semi-circular tab projecting downwards from the chin along the median axis; the back of the mount is hollow; height, 28.6mm; width, 11.7mm.

The man's hair is centrally parted and curves back on itself in nielloed loops above a prominent m-shaped brow-ridge, also inlaid with black niello, which joins to the broad snub nose. The tip of the nose was possibly once nielloed in a horizontal groove. The protruding eyes, which both contain spots of niello, are demarcated from the bulbous cheeks by short triple ridges. The mouth is indicated by an oval loop, which is open at the bottom. On each side of the head behind the brow ridge and above triple-ridged sideboards is a bird's head, with a curved beak pointing upwards from a C-shaped frame enclosing an eye. The semi-circular tab at the base of the mount is decorated on both sides with an Early Anglo-Saxon, Style I animal motif comprising an arched frame, which encloses an eye above short triple ridges. A nielloed zigzag line runs along the base beneath each motif and there is a curved nielloed line, possibly representing a boar's tusk, in front of each of the arches.

The find may be connected with a small number of early Anglo-Saxon mounts cast in the form of a man's head, e.g. a bearded example of gilded silver from South Yorkshire and a more stylised mount of gilded copper alloy from Cambridgeshire (N. Mills, 2001, Saxon & Viking Artefacts, Witham, p. 67, nos. AS155-156). A copper-alloy head from Tallington, Lincolnshire, was submitted to Peterborough Museum in 2003 (PAS ref. LIN-D2AE90) and a bearded and moustachioed head, also with a hollow back and probably of similar date, is illustrated without provenance in The Searcher for November 2002, on p. 17. A less close comparison may also be drawn with a damaged, gilded silver object with two male heads (probably originally three) from the Aldborough area, Norfolk, reported as Treasure in 2006, which was generously donated by the finder to Norwich Castle Museum (Treasure Annual Report 2005/6, no. 305)

The function of these mounts is a little uncertain, although some of the heads have rivets, or are pierced for attachment possibly to a wooden staff. Examples without fixings were perhaps soldered to metal objects, or perhaps served as amulets kept in a pouch.

The mount from the Market Weighton area can be dated from its style to around AD 450-550. It would therefore qualify as Treasure under two of the stipulated criteria of the Treasure Act: it is more than 300 years old and the precious metal content exceeds 10%.

B.M. Ager, Curator, Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory, The British Museum

16 February 2015