It is related to a small bronze buckle from Schwarzrheindorf (Kr.

Bonn); here,
however - as with
the buckle from Sutton Hoo - the pin and fitting are made from one piece. Due to
the differently
arranged decorative strips, another set from Weingarten and the rectangular
fittings from Stühhngen
(Kr. Waldshut) are close to the type just presented.

...

Cloisonnated buckles of the basic shape discussed here are found almost exclusively
in England.
The buckle from Sutton Hoo is part of a spathe belt set; the coins given resulted
in a terminus
post quem of around 625, at most until around 635.

...

The occurrences of this buckle shape are, apart from the type with cloisonné
decoration, which is
also spatially delimited, from buckles that belong to Spathagurten with fittings of
the Weihmörting
type, as in Rödingen (Kr.Jülich), and probably also from buckles with pressed sheet
decoration,
as in St. Peter's, Broadstairs (Kent), limited to the 2nd and 3rd quarters of the
6th centuries.
The proportions of the buckles show the tendency towards a development from compact
shapes, e.g.
in Altenerding Grab 14 and Freilaubersheim, to elongated shapes; it is already
tangible in the
buckle from Dieue-sur-Meuse and then very clearly in the one from Sutton Hoo. The
same can also be
observed with the rectangular fittings e.g. from Elgg and Schleitheim on the one
hand, and with the
younger fittings of the Weihmörting type on the other hand.

...

In the last third of the 6th century, the group of buckles dealt with here is
continued in the
Weihmörting-type spatula belt sets. In the vast majority of sets, however, only the
rectangular
fittings are taken over, only very occasionally - as in Sutton Hoo and Rödingen -
buckles with
rectangular fittings also belong to the set. In analogy to the multi-part spathe
belt set from
Sutton Hoo, H. Ament suggested the function of a spathe belt fastener for the
buckles discussed here.
The occurrences in women's graves show that this cannot be valid in every case.
Also, there is
certainly no spathe in some of the men's graves.