Copper-alloy buckle, intrusive

Buckle(?), ruthlessly cleaned as it seems, and presenting the appearance of brass rather than bronze, width 3.35 cm. Has straight hinge-bar, with no remains of pin, and an unusually broad and convex loop, quite hollow underneath and showing traces of casting flanges improperly removed. Despite the cleaning, some slight traces of wear.Decoration on loop consists of a pair of fabulous beasts, heads backturned, necks affronted against a grooved mid-rib. Like the best on the plate from grave 41, these creatures are presented in 3/4 relief or profile, so that all legs are presented to view, and chest and rumps are half-turned to the viewer likewise.On the left side is a dog-headed monster, possibly with a lion's posterior: it has a prominent eye and pointed ear; forefeet with curled claws, the left (eg. behind body) upraised, the other in rest position - this one has a pear-shaped joint. Narrow flank gives way to bulbous haunch with nearside foot (right) stretched back, offside foot (left) couched forward. The tail is carried forward in a thin grooved strand across the legs and, forking, one end is in the creature's own jaws, the other forked end, with trefoil foliate terminal, is carried down under the belly and forefoot. This animal has deep curving transverse grooves on neck and flank; there are similar deep grooves, though straight, in the ground behind the rump and below the body, and also on the median ridge. The second creature has an eagle's head, bird's wing stretched upwards and curling over at tip; it would seem also to have 2 bird's feet, but the hind-part is of a quadruped, nearside leg stretched back behind, as before, offside leg forward, and a grooved tail brought forward between thighs under the wing and up to the animal's beak. This creature also has deeply grooved neck and wing, and grooved ground behind and below posterior.Not Anglo-Saxon work. The presentation of the animals resembles that on the less competent buckle-plate from Gilton grave 41, and suggests a similar Mediterranean source. For the winged griffon compare the eagle with lion's body on the early (5-6th c.?) pendant brooch from Capua, for example. Note that it was found in the same grave as the 'Renaissance' sword pommel and Italian arm-ring.