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Description: | Copper alloy pin. Cast pin comprising a gently tapered unhipped pointed shank of round section with an integrally cast head of angular design. The head comprises a neatly facetted and elongated block with a squared triple layered cordon above and below. The upper cordon is itself surmounted by a flat pentagonal plate with a central drilled hole of diameter 1.5mm and a very finely incised border. The central block has stamped ring and dot on each facet, a ring and dot flanked by two or three dots on its longer facets; or a drilled dot alone where the available field would not accommodate an outer ring. The ring and dot is of similar diameter to the apical hole - c.1.5mm. There are also nine tiny (of diameter 1-0.75mm or less) pits on either side of the top lug. Some form rows of three aligned pits, though the intention appears to have been to surround the central hole with more or less equidistant decoration. The pin shank is now bent, presumably as adventitious post-depositional damage.The form of the pin bears a passing resemblance to 'block headed' hair pins of Cool's (1990) Type 11 pins, from groups with a probably 2nd-century floruit. The function may be the same. However, Cool's typology includes no examples of ring and dot, which usually adorns later metalwork from Roman contexts. The provision of a hole at the top, permitting pins to be linked, may also ally this object to later forms of pin made in various materials and for more varied purposes. The crisp moulding and neat execution of additional motifs is of exemplary, possibly metropolitan, quality. It quite surpasses those cruder and later Middle Saxon essays which combine facetted and drilled decoration of pin heads, though objects such as this might inspire such imitations where Romanitas was to be cherished or promoted. The quality of the piece, and its possible contribution to the evolution of later forms, suggests it as a 'find of note'. Suggested date: Late Roman, 200-410.Length (as found): 48.5mm, Diameter (top of shank): 3.1mm, Width (at head, cordon): 4.7mm, Thickness (head, at cordon): 3.5mm, Weight: 4.19gms.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/ | Go to resource |
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