Post Roman Gallic Figural Amuletic Bone Carving
5th-7th century A.D. or later. A carved bone amulet or mount displaying a stylised figural scene: central panel featuring two figures seated back to back at the centre, possibly bound captives, flanked by larger figures seated facing them, holding cups; two orderly rows of centre-facing heads either side; decorative striations to both terminals, pierced twice for attachment. Cf. Dalton, O.M., Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum, London, 1901, item 291, for type; for similar carving style see the belt of Saint Caesarius, in D'Amato, R., Post Roman Kingdoms, Dark Ages Gaul and Britain, AD 450-800, Oxford, 2022, p.12. 19.4 grams, 14 cm (5 1/2 in.). Previously in the Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.From a Cambridge collection.Property of a North London gentleman. The piece is curved and slightly twisted in the horizontal plane suggesting that it would be unsuitable for mounting on a piece of furniture or casket unless it formed an inset panel within a larger scene.