Pictured above is the buckle recovered from the site at Oranmore – you can read the introduction to the excavation in this post: http://www.mooregroup.ie/2011/02/excavations-at-oranmore/
A copper alloy buckle with pin fragment attached was found in the topsoil covering Area 1. It is likely to be a disturbed find from the burial ground. The Romans were probably the first to introduce metal buckles into northern Europe in the early centuries of the first millennium AD. They used simple ‘D’ shaped buckles that were fastened onto their armour or clothing. This form of buckle was in use until the 14th century AD when the figure eight or spectacle buckle was introduced. Buckles were usually made of copper alloys and iron and were cast in stone moulds as one piece, until pin bars or spindles were introduced from the fourteenth century onwards. The buckle found in Area 1 survives in two pieces consisting of a ‘C’ shaped frame with a central pin bar. It had decoration on one side of the curve of the frame which consisted of a series of vertical lines. Comparisons with other buckles found in Ireland suggest that the buckle probably dates to between 1600 and 1700 AD.
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