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Description: | An incomplete (probably) cast copper alloy lock pin, dating to the Roman period, between AD 43 - 300 (length: 13mm; diameter: 18mm; weight: 9.5g).The lock pin is circular in plan and slightly dish-shaped in section. The upper face has a flared outside edge, which creates a border that surrounds a circular sunken area inside the top of the artefact. A protruding central platform (with a slight depression in the centre) rises from the upper face of the artefact (length of central projection: 4.5mm; diameter of projection: 6mm). Beneath this upper face, there is a single collar that circles around the tapering neck of the lock pin. This collar also circles around the remains of a centrally projecting and integral copper alloy shaft (length of remaining shaft: 3mm; width of shaft: 4.5mm; thickness of shaft: 2mm). The shaft appears to be sub-rectangular in section. It is difficult to assess the original length of the shaft when the artefact was complete. There is no other decoration on the lock pin, which is in a worn, corroded but fair condition with a small amount of the dark green patina remaining.Similar lock pins are illustrated in Crummy, N, 1983, 'Colchester Archaeological Report 2: The Roman Small Finds from excavations in Colchester 1971-9', pages 123-5, ref nos 4142-3. Crummy states that copper-alloy lock pins are most likely to derive from small locks for boxes or cupboards and that 'the visible and sometimes the moving parts such as the lock-plate, bolt, tumblers and key were of copper alloy, while the internal parts such as casing were of iron. Larger locks fitted on doors would almost certainly have been made of iron for greater strength' (Crummy 1983, 123-4).Other similar artefacts have also been recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database, which include SF-9A5BA3 (from Wenhaston with Mells Hamlet, Suffolk); ESS-941778 (from Rainham, Greater London) and WAW-D6B013 (Claverden, Warwickshire).
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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