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Description: | An early-medieval or medieval terminal from a pin or lace-tag, in the form of a tapering, circular shaft with a polyhedral head. The head is in the form of a cuboid with corners cut off (7.4 by 5.9 by 5.6mm). Each lozengiform facet of the head is engraved with a quatrefoil with lozengiform leaves, a design enhanced with a surrounding niello inlay. The triangular faces are decorated with a V-shaped inlay in niello. Below the head is a raised collar.The hollow shaft flares from the collar to the edge of the socket, and is decorated with a pair of incised circumferential lines. Beyond these lines the socket is pierced with four holes, in two aligned pairs; one is perhaps original and the second may be a replacement. The first pair of holes is located closer to the edge of the socket, and the object is broken across both of these holes. The second pair is located perpendicular to the first, closer to the incised lines, and although one of these holes is also broken across, the other is intact. The surviving edge of the socket has a small V-shaped nick close to the intact hole.Dimensions: The object is 20.7mm long, 5.9mm wide and c. 5.0mm in diameter at the broken socketl; it weighs 3.03g.Discussion: Other similar objects have gone through the Treasure process, including 2001T34, 2003T49, 2004T380 (PAS-E3C058), 2011T174 (SWYOR-B1FFB4), 2011T377 (CAM-F0DC51) and 2012T910 (SUSS-AFF3B1). Their use is contested, as is their dating. The earliest examples reported had damaged terminals but were given a 12th-century date on the basis of the decorative style and treatment. Later examples, on which a retaining pin has survived, were thought to be terminals for hanging textile or leather, that is, lace tags or strap-ends, or terminals for composite pointers or pins.If they are composite pins, they are decoratively comparable to whole pins dated to the Middle Anglo-Saxon period (e.g. 2013 T110), which also have niello inlays and collars at the junction of head and shaft. In addition, there are socketed pinheads (of different design) which are reliably of middle Anglo-Saxon date (e.g. GLO-D79602, WAW-92EB56 and items occasionally described as 'aestels'). A middle Anglo-Saxon date and an identification as a composite pin therefore seems most likely.
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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