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Description: | A cast copper alloy Iron Age linch pin terminal, which is the foot of the pin. The lynch pin terminal is an irregular shape. In profile it is a sub conical, whose tip terminates with a large flat integral disc, which has then been angled to become vertical. The reverse of the disc is convex and has an integral triangular tip of the conical portion. The disc is decorated with a quatrefoil with each arm having a convex and concave edge. The field around the quatrefoil is filled with red enamel, which is incomplete. Below the disc decoration, on the conical body of the terminal, there is further decoration formed by a triangular cell, which was probably originally filled with enamel. And finally, at one side of the conical body, there is a second cell, which is a pelta shape which has traces of red enamel within. The base of the conical body has a sub-rectangular cell with traces of iron within. The surface of the lynch pin has a well developed brown coloured patina. Slight pitting has occurred but the object is stable. It measures 35.37mm long, 19.03mm wide and 16.74mm thick. It weighs 32.7g.Linch pin terminals date to the late Iron Age period, c. 100BC to c. 50AD. Sometimes this shaped terminal of a composite linch pin is known as 'hoof' type terminal (Hutcheson, N. 2004 Later Iron Age Norfolk: Metalwork, landscape and society B.A.R. 361 p. 109). Hutcheson illustrates similar examples, No. 46, and dates these to c. 100BC to c. 100AD. A strikingly similarly decorated terminal has been recorded from Lincolnshire on the PAS database (LIN-C32003).
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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