Hooked tags for winingas, Triangular, c. 9th C., copper alloy

Manuscript show winingas wrapped spirally around the lower leg. Hooked tags of various types are often found just below the knees of skeletons; a pair of hooks were found below the kneecaps of a male skeleton in Birka grave Bj903, and similar bird or mask-like hooks were found at 'Ryurik Gorodische', near Novgorod, 9-10th cent. Small silver hooked tags were found in a similar position in a 9th cent. burial at Winchester, England. The location of the hooks as found in the graves make it reasonable to assume that their function was to hold up the winingas. 

The triangular plate is decorated with a beaded border and terminates in a stylized animal head leading into the hook. On the central field two opposed scrolls resembling stylized winged snakes or serpents stand in low relief from the background.

Details on the extant object copied:
UK Detector Finds Database Ref. No. 1912
Found: Near Gloucester, Glouchestershire
Recorded: July, 2005
Materials: Silver