Buckle, military belt buckle

A bone buckle with the remains of the bronze suspension pin in situ. There is some bronze staining on the loop and surviving tongue, derived from the fixing pin for the tongue, fragments of which survive on both 'legs' of the buckle.

Bone buckles are rarely recorded but copy well known metal forms. Similar British examples are recorded from Hod Hill, Fingeringhoe (in Colchester and Essex Museum) and Wroxeter (in Wroxeter Museum). These are the most common forms of bone buckle recorded on the continent. Examples are known from Rheingonheim, Risstissen, Aslingen, Oberstimm and unpublished examples from Heddernheim, Augst, Trier and Pompeii. Surprisingly the form of buckle is not recorded at Vindonissa where there are relatively large numbers of bone buckles. The simple shape of the tongue is paralleled by those from Fingeringhoe and Wroxeter. The balance of the evidence clearly places the type in the early Roman period and probably principally in the first century AD.