How does this artwork elucidate its Findings?
The fibula is a multilayered structure. Its face consists of a very thin fire gilded and contoured silver disc, having a diameter of 58 millimetres (2.3 in). This is fixed by three silver rivet pins to an identically sized, 3 millimetres (0.12 in) thick copper plate and together with this on a stronger silver plate. The rear plate, 78 millimetres (3.1 in) in diameter, is significantly larger. On its rear, the pin was mounted. The reverse of the front plate was filled with a now whitish green mix of tin, lead and traces of copper in order to support the sensitive friction work and to prevent the pressing of the driven ornaments. But the tin components of the filler have damaged some of the metal parts of the decoration due to allotropic processes forced by low temperatures during long term storage in the soil (tin pest). The decoration consists of a quadrupedal animal walking to the right, with the animal's head facing backwards. It has two ears and a protruding tongue. Around its neck it wears a collar shaped ornament. The legs are positioned under the body to accommodate the round shape of the disc. The background is decorated with irregularly distributed impressions, imitating a granulation. The scene is framed by two ribbed bands, which are enclosed by an ornamental wreath and another ribbed band. Around the body of the animal there are  three rosette shaped rivet heads. The body of the animal has a large defect caused by the degenerated tin filling. Some of the protruding edges of the rear mounting plate are broken away. Beneath the copper plate, residual amounts of organic material were found, which were interpreted as ivory. Due to typological comparisons of the ornaments, the fibula was dated to circa 300 AD.
dated tin pest silver tin allotropic ivory typological fire gilded fibula lead granulation copper