English: Fragment, cast tinned copper-alloy tongue from large buckle. Shield-on-tongue type. The tongue is D-shaped in section with a pointed apex. The shield-shaped base-plate has the remains of an iron rivet on the reverse. Silver patina on all surfaces. L: 52 W: 9.5-21.5 Wt: 52g Shield-on-tongue buckles are Frankish in origin and were very common elsewhere on the Continent in the period c. AD 525-625. Within England, they are heavily associated with Kentish cemeteries.

More than ten examples were found at the Dover Buckland cemetery, Kent (Evison 1987). Eight of the Buckland buckles were found with shoe-shaped rivets which fastened the two layers of the belt together after it passed over the buckle loop. Elsewhere in Kent an example is known from Chatham Lines (now in Ashmolean Museum collections; MacGregor and Bolick 1993, 204 no. 34.52). Examples from Coddenham, Suffolk (West 1998, 20 no. 19.7 fig. 19) 33mm long and Hinderclay, Suffolk (West 1998, 44 no. 48.18) are 33mm and 29mm long respectively, compared to the incomplete length of 52mm for this example. No parallels for the large size of this example have been found.