PIN

An incomplete copper alloy Pin of middle Early-Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) date (AD 700-900). The object is composed of a globular head with a slightly flattened top. The head is decorated with a twisted and grooved design spiralling around the head. This decoration was formally known as ‘wrythen-headed' decoration. At the base of the head is a single banded circumferential collar from which a circular-sectioned shaft extends. The shaft is slightly bent and terminates in an old abraded break before the tapered point.

The metal is mid-green in colour with a slightly pitted patina

Length: 32.98mm, Diameter (head): 11.91mm, Diameter (shaft): 2.67mm, Weight: 7.3g

Similar examples can be seen on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database: YORYM-89C104, LIN-D75272, SF-92C643, LIN-F5DB99 and IOW-69931B.

Although spherical heads with grooving are a feature of several of Cool's types of Roman pin (e.g. Cool 1990, Group 13), there is no close parallel to this pin within Roman material. The form is, however, well-known from middle Anglo-Saxon contexts. This example is slightly unusual in that it has no collar between head and shaft.

Similar Early-Medieval examples without collars have been recorded from Hamwic (Southampton). See Hinton 1996: 16, ref: Ab1ii.

Cool, H.E.M, 1990. 'Roman Metal Hair Pins Southern Britain', Archaeological Journal.

Hinton, D. A., 1996. The Gold, Silver and Other Non-Ferrous Alloy Objects from Hamwic, and the Non-Ferrous Metalworking Evidence. Stroud.

Webster, L. and Backhouse, J. 1991. The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon art and culture, AD 600-900 P 97, no.69j, k. British Museum Press.