Rights Holder: The Portable Antiquities Scheme
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Unique ID: LIN-9CB1B8
Object type certainty: Probably
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Fragment of a copper alloy mace head. The head is a conical in plan and slightly tapers towards the top. It would originally have had three rows of three knops, each vertical line of three at 45 degrees to each other. The knops are pyramidal in plan. The top of the mace is very smooth and clearly indicates that it would not have extended above into any further rows. Although the lower end of the mace is missing, the length of the shaft below the knops suggests that no further lower rows would have been present. The upper most knop is slightly angled downwards.
The internal diameter of the mace shaft is 20mm at the top, and an estimated 25mm at the break of the shaft. The thickness of the shaft is just 2mm. The knops are 14mm wide, 7mm high and 10mm deep.
Although similar examples of this elongated form of knopped mace head are known from Ireland and most other parts of Europe, the arrangement of the knops into four vertically linear sets of three makes this example unique to date. Very few stratified examples have been found at the time of writing (11/6/04), with the most securest example coming from a mid 13th century deposit at Dryswelyn Castle, Wales. A similar mace was found at Fiskerton, Lincolnshire, recorded on the Portable Antiquities Database as LIN-871975.
The function of these objects in not entirely clear. Although they look like maces they may actually be purely decorative or ceremonial objects, although an example from Soborg, Denmark was found with an iron spike attached to the top. Slightly later maceheads found in Ireland show the shaft developing into decorative openwork sections, which clearly indicates a ceremonial/decorative function, rather than being a staff weapon.
This object has been published by Daubney in Geake (2005, 336; fig. 5a); noted in Daubney's 2007 catalogue (Daubney 2007, 206; cat. no. 8).
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1200
Date to: Circa AD 1300
Quantity: 1
Length: 70 mm
Thickness: 2 mm
Diameter: 34 mm
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Grid reference source: From a paper map
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1851 | Om Ruinerne af asserbo og Soborg | ||||||
Daubney, A. | 2010 | Medieval Copper-alloy Mace-heads from England, Scotland and Wales | Oxford | BAR | 206 | 8 | |
Geake, H. | 2005 | Medieval Britain and Ireland in 2004: Portable Antiquities Scheme report | Leeds | Maney | 336 | 5a | |
Halpin, A. | 1988 | Irish Medieval Bronze Maceheads | Galway University Press |