Llanbadoc Discovery: Late Medieval Artefact Could Have Belonged To Knight

MessageToEagle.com – The metal detectorist who found a fragment of late medieval mount near the River Usk in March 2014, inscribed with the 15th century words “none this good”, believes the newly-declared treasure could have formed part of the grip of a sword lost by a knight near the site of the 1405 Battle of Pwll Melyn.

A slightly concave curvature and an invocation to the Virgin in Latin and Low German – also seen on finger rings from the period – feature on the rivet-holed mount, discovered near Llanbadoc, in Monmouthshire, and reported to the National Roman Legion Museum in Caerleon,’ reports Culture 24.

“I’ve been metal detecting for 15 years,” says Michael Beirne, a Fabrication and Welding Engineering student at the Coleg Gwent City of Newport campus.

“This has probably been my best find. I’d like to think that the sword, which it may have been part of, belonged to a Welsh or English knight.”

The silver mount bears two incomplete inscriptions engraved against a recessed diagonally hatched background. There are two incomplete holes, suggesting that it once formed part of a composite object.

Curators at National Museum Wales say the surviving fragment represents half its original length, leaving room on the missing section for another short motto or an enamelled shields of arms.

The museum group hopes to use Heritage Lottery Fund money to buy the hoard follow an independent valuation.

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