|
Date: |
|
Description: | An incomplete copper-alloy pin with chip carved decoration on the head.The head is of elongated, sub-trapezoidal form, its upper surface decorated with two animals, executed in negative relief, their deep, v-shaped grooves adorned with gilding. The head of the one of the animals is located towards the wider end of the pin head and faces backwards. It is of simple design, being roughly circular in plan and having a pellet eye at the centre. The inner end of the head extends smoothly into the body, an open beak springing from the junction between the two and containing the distal end of the tail. Apart from the curved neck, the body is very angular and heavily stylised, with a block-like front and hind leg visible. The tail, which springs from the top corner of the rump, is segmented, executed in relief but set within the deeply recessed area above the back of the animal. The head of the second animal is located at the tail end of the first. Its form is almost identical; however, unlike the first, it has a large, pelta-shaped head crest, formed from a beaded groove, the points of which protrude beyond the otherwise straight lines of the pin head. The wider end of the pin head also has a decorative rounded projection on each corner, the outer sides of which angle inwards, towards the centre of the its vertical side, the point where they meet being marked by a small projecting lobe. An L-shaped groove (the lower one inverted) is located within each of the two aforementioned corner projections. The design is bordered by a double line of punched dots, there are five triangular ornaments, plus a vertical groove at the narrow end. The second element, a circular-sectioned shaft, projects at 180 degrees from the centre of the narrow end of the pin head. It has a slight upward curve and has been broken in antiquity. The artefact measures 94.4mm long, up to 29.1mm wide, 3.6mm thick and weighs 37.7g.Barry Ager, Curator of the British Museum's Continental Early Medieval collection, comments: '...Although I cannot suggest a very close parallel for this very unusual find, it seems possible that it could be the head of a hairpin of western Frankish origin. An early 6th-century silver-gilt pin from Douvrend (Seine-Maritime) in the museum at Rouen has a long head elaborately decorated with two chip-carved sea-creatures in procession and garnet settings, although their outlines form the edge of the head rather than being set inside a border. Also, semi-naturalistic animals are rare, but not unknown during the period of Style I. The head of the pin is illustrated in A. Danet and P. Périn, 1992, De l'Egypte ancienne à la Renaissance rouennaise..., Musée des Antiquités, Rouen. Rouen, pl. 52...'.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
|
More Like this...
-
-
HOOKED TAG
Silver hooked tag with Trewhiddle-style…
-
-
HOARD
Hoard of 23 coins, four…
-
BROOCH
An early Anglo-Saxon copper-alloy small-long…
-
Mount
A cast copper-alloy zoomorphic mount…
-
WEIGHT
An Early-Medieval lead-alloy weight with…
-
MOUNT
A copper-alloy mount of Early-Medieval…
-
SCABBARD
A cast copper-alloy zoomorphic scabbbard…
-
VESSEL
A copper-alloy looped fitting of…
|