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Description: | Linchpins were designed to hold a wheel on to a fixed axle. They have a long history in Iron Age Europe, but are a relatively late development in Britain.
Common to late Iron Age metalwork in Britain, linchpins in this country develop their own distinctive decorative characteristics.
The majority of linchpins comprise a copper alloy head and tip that are cast onto an iron bar, although a few 'all iron' examples are known. This example
comprises the fragment of a copper alloy linchpin foot. This linch-pin foot, when complete, would have emulated a horses hoof and lower leg. Not unusually, the
base of the 'hoof' is decorated. In this case, the decoration comprises a concave-sided triangle. Other examples of this style of linch-pin foot are known
from Norfolk. Linch pins are difficult to date, however a date in the first century BC/AD seems
most likely. | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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