PIN

However Dr. Kevin Leahy (pers comm.) suggests they date from the Iron Age to Post Medieval periods.

Crummy (1988: 06-07) writes "Fibulae, usually pig but sometimes horse, pierced at the proximal end have been interpreted as either dress pins or needles. Unpierced fibulae are interpreted as either dress pins or awls. There seems to be no good reason why both schools of thought are not equally valid, and consequently published identifications can seem almost random. For example, of the pierced pig fibulae from West Stow some are called needles and some pins, with no explanation given as to why two identifications have been used and despite there being no obvious illustrated difference between examples (eg compare West 1985, 27, fig 94.13 with 29, fig 100.6). Mann (1982, 10, 25-6) distinguishes between simple pierced examples and those trimmed down at the head and on the shaft. The former she classes as needles, and the latter as pins. This seems a most reasonable approach.

Interpretation of pierced pig fibulae as needles is upheld by Ambrosiani in her discussion of the bone and antler objects from Ribe, Denmark (1981,135-6). She suggests that though they are too coarse for ordinary sewing, they could be used for mesh knitting in the manufacture of stockings or shrouds. One example from Ribe is unpierced, and for this object Ambrosiani suggests that either it is an unfinished needle, or that it may be an awl. Mann (1982, 10) suggests such needles could be used for netting, basket-work, or in the manufacture of braids. Further support for pierced fibulae as needles comes from Thetford, where horse not pig fibulae were used, and the report includes an ethnographic parallel from the Faroes (Rogerson & Dallas 1984, 167).

Both pierced and unpierced pig fibulae from Northampton have been described as dress pins (Oakley 1979, 310). MacGregor (1985, 120-1) has most clearly expounded their interpretation as such. For pierced examples he sees the perforation as providing a hole for a retaining cord which either linkeda pair of such pins, one on each shoulder, or was passed round the pin's tip to enable it to act as a simple safety pin.