Belt fragment

M10487

Information

'Samnite belt' (fragmentary). Fragment of one end of a wide bronze belt, preserving the two hook shaped clasps. The belt was originally a rectangular plate of sheet bronze, 0.083 m wide, probably with a leather liner of the same size. The back surface preserves part of a separate bronze plate, its edges folded over the front and anchored with many small nails. The two cast bronze hooks were attached with rivets through leaf shaped plaques with a simple relief decoration of stylized volutes and palmette. The hook ends themselves are elongated triangles with grooved and stippled upper surfaces similar to the over stylized doe's heads of late Etruscan mirror handles. The tip of one hook has been repaired in antiquity with a rivet.