Dr Marsden, from the Norfolk Historic Environment Service, external, said this was an era when the Roman Empire, which had become officially Christian by AD380, was “in freefall”.
“We know the Anglo-Saxons of this period are pagan and they are moving in and starting to take over the whole of England, mainly in the east at this moment,” he said.
“It’s slightly ironic, these people are definitely not Christian, yet they are copying a Christian image – the moot point is if they understood the imagery – and they blundered the lettering, so they’re certainly not literate.”
Anglo-Saxons began to arrive in England in small numbers from AD410, and by AD500 were being fiercely resisted, external, in a period which used to be known as the Dark Ages, but is now called early medieval by historians.
The “garbled” lettering around the emperor’s image reads D N HONORIVS P F AVG and was “more-or-less accurate”, the numismatist added.
On the other side of the 23mm (0.9in) long by 20.2mm (0.8in) wide pendant can be seen a figure holding a banner with a cross design.
