FIGURINE

Enigmatic object made of cast copper alloy with a longm slightly flaring base and a horned-head terminal. The base is square in section, measuring 8 mm square at its largest, and is hollow for the lower half of its 24 mm length. The two sides each have a bold central rib running down their length, and are poorly finished; the front and back are undecorated. At the top of the base is a hollow cylindrical area with the perforation running between the tops of the two ribs. Above this is a simplified but naturalistic three-dimensional human head, with squarish modelling forming two eyebrows and a nose. Two flat horns spring from the back of the head, and both are bent and broken with stress to the metal and loss of surface (old breaks). The whole object has not been particularly well finished and there may have been no modification after casting. Overall surviving length 51 mm.

The function of this little figure is uncertain, but there is a good parallel from the Swedish island of Öland, published in the Buckland Dover report (Evison 1987, 84-5). The Öland example has two flat horns springing from the centre of the head, which each end in a bird's head. The base of the Öland example is much shorter, and appears from the Buckland Dover report to be circular in cross-section. What was the perforation for? It has been suggested that it might have held separate arms, making the figure much more lifelike, but on the Oland example it is the head which is transversely pierced and so this perforation could not have held arms. A suspension loop would have been fouled by the horns. Likewise the function of the hollow base is uncertain. Evison uses the Öland example as a parallel for the horned-head "pin" in grave 161, and interprets both as cult objects.

The Tuddenham example is a highly significant find as it provides evidence for North Sea contacts with Scandinavia in the pre-Viking age.

Update: another example has been found in Suffolk, at Great Waldingfield, and recorded on the PAS database at SF5471.