cintura/ a placche

This is a Byzantine belt-set, a complex piece of martial or official regalia, broken into its constituent parts. The oval buckle, pointed at the tongue’s end, carries a sliding plate shaped like an elongated shield. Three rivets with beaded rims fix the plate, which is incised with a Latin cross, closed at the top by two triangles filled with punch-dots and flanked by cord-like lines; below, a stylised grape-cluster motif. The reverse retains the belt’s fastening loop.

The matching counter-plate is a double, opposed shield shape with a zigzag edge. Its decoration echoes the buckle, with the addition of a central double circle containing dots; on the smaller shield, a double circle bisected by the edge, opposite a double oval marked with a cross.

The main strap-end is U-shaped, with a zigzag border and three rivets. Its upper zone holds a human figure, the face an inverted pear shape, a cross on the forehead; the waist has a stylised belt with three pendants. Below, two double circles with dots and a central cross, separated by comma motifs. The owner’s name, in Germanic script, is incised on the reverse.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.