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Description: | Cast copper-alloy key with bit aligned at a right angle to the central shank, possibly early-medieval, but more probably medieval. The key is complete and in overall good condition with a bright brown patina and only minimal patches of bronze disease. The upper part of the shank is rectangular in cross-section, with bevelled edges and a grooved criss-cross and zig-zag decoration on the surface. The shank terminates in a small suspension loop at the top. At the other side, it expands towards the middle, then bifurcates and ends in a complex and almost symmetrical 'bit'. The bit is set at an right angle to the shank. It is almost square/rectangular in plan with small semicircular 'chunks' missing from each side. There is a central oval perforation.Stanley West (1998 fig. 55.8) includes a key like this in his corpus of Anglo-Saxon finds from Suffolk, but with further date or any parallels. His key comes from Icklingham, Suffolk, which is generally a Roman and early Anglo-Saxon site but with other stray objects; it is now in the British Museum (accession number 1919.1000.2). On their website, the BM describe this as a 'Late Anglo-Saxon key, 9th-11th century'. The BM record can be found here: (enter number 1919,1007.2 and look at all views). It is a very similar object, but with two circular holes instead of just the one in the 'bit' end.Geoff Egan published another parallel from medieval London (a date which is perhaps more likely for this object, given its findspot). He calls this a key with 'bit at right angle to centrally attached shank' (Egan 1998, 103, fig. 76, no. 273). It is 103mm long, and again has a short length of solid square-section shank with bevelled edges (this time expanding towards the middle to form a lozenge shape) with a bifurcated part below. The bit does not re-unite the two parts, and is asymmetric with a differently sized cut-out on either side. This comes from a context of c. 1270-c. 1350, and Egan cites parallels of functionally similar but differently shaped objects from Winchester (Goodall in Biddle 1990, no. 3724, of iron, perhaps 13th century) and from the Thames Exchange, Upper Thames St, London (Egan 1998, fig. 63, of bone, perhaps late 12th century).
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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