Record ID: NMS-078751
Object type: BROOCH
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
County: Norfolk
Workflow stage: Published
Description: Medieval silver annular brooch. The frame is small, circular and a low D-shape in cross-section, with a constriction for the pin. It is now bent, broken across the constriction, and the pin is missing. The frame is decorated on the convex front with engraved and stamped decoration; held with the constriction at the top and reading anti-clockwise, the engraving consists of a transverse groove, then four saltires, then a half-saltire ending in a D-shaped recess. The lozenges and triangles thus formed are filled with triangular and sub-triangular punchmarks which se…
Created on: Thursday 2nd March 2023
Last updated: Wednesday 11th October 2023
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: NMS-070E37
Object type: BROOCH
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
County: Norfolk
Workflow stage: Published
Description: Fragment of medieval silver annular brooch, with a slim circular-section frame interrupted by two small irregular bosses both decorated with annulet stamps giving a 'brambled' effect. Both breaks are immediately after the boss and both are granular and unworn. The frame is now bent so that it is difficult to suggest an original diameter. Dimensions: Length of fragment, 25mm. Diameter of frame between bosses, 1.8mm. Thickness of bosses, 3-4mm. Weight 0.9g. Discussion: This type of annular brooch, with a circular wire frame interrupted by normally four bramble…
Created on: Thursday 2nd March 2023
Last updated: Wednesday 11th October 2023
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: NMS-CD6871
Object type: BROOCH
Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
County: Norfolk
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Terminal from the foot of an early Anglo-Saxon cruciform brooch, now very corroded and battered about. It is broken (worn break) across some transverse grooves, and on the reverse here a line of a catchplate can be seen as a very slight raised and corroded line in the otherwise smooth brown patina. Below the grooves are two broad transverse mouldings, and then comes the simple horse-head terminal. The front of this is covered in corrosion bubbles, and very little detail can be seen, but it appears to taper slightly from where the eyes would have been, then flare out again to slim point…
Created on: Monday 27th February 2023
Last updated: Thursday 13th April 2023
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: NMS-4EFB15
Object type: DIE STAMP
Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
County: Norfolk
Workflow stage: Published
Copper-alloy object, probably a die of Pressblech type. It is 140.1mm long and straight-sided, tapering from a maximum of 32.3mm wide at one rectangular, straight-cut end to 26mm wide just above a V-shaped pointed end. The object is not completely flat, but is gently curved along its length, with a concave reverse and a convex front. Total thickness 7.3mm, weight 186.14g. The reverse is undecorated. The front is decorated with high-relief ornament which stands up to 2.3mm proud of the base. The base varies between about 4 and 5mm thick, and extends beyond the panel of ornament to…
Created on: Tuesday 21st February 2023
Last updated: Thursday 2nd March 2023
Spatial data recorded. This findspot is known as 'Norfolk', grid reference and parish protected.

Record ID: NMS-38F2DE
Object type: BROOCH
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
County: Norfolk
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Description: Tiny silver medieval annular brooch. It has an almost circular, D-section frame with a constriction for the silver pin. Opposite this is a pin rest, and both pin constriction and pin rest are flanked by animal heads pointing towards them, perhaps intended as biting at them. Each of the four animal heads has relief ears, eyes made from annulet punches, and nostrils made from single dots. If the pin constriction is held at 12 o'clock, then at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock is a slightly expanded raised oval zone of oblique grooves wit…
Created on: Monday 20th February 2023
Last updated: Monday 18th September 2023
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: NMS-38706A
Object type: SOCKETED AXEHEAD
Broad period: BRONZE AGE
County: Norfolk
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Fragment of mouth from a large socketed axe of late Bronze Age date (c. 1000 to 800 BC). About half survives, with one angle between front and side, showing that (when viewed from the top) the mouth was originally sub-square or sub-rectangular, with convex sides. One filed-down oval bump on the top,  near the break at the side, is probably the remains of a casting runner stub. Viewed from the front, the moulding around the mouth droops outwards with a bevelled edge. Immediately below this there is a clear, neat vertical ridge running down the centre of the side for the …
Created on: Wednesday 8th February 2023
Last updated: Monday 17th April 2023
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: NMS-37CA51
Object type: PALSTAVE
Broad period: BRONZE AGE
County: Norfolk
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Almost-complete copper-alloy unlooped palstave of middle Bronze Age date (c. 1600-1400 BC), in very good condition. The blade is broadly sub-triangular, with relatively straight flaring sides which then curve sharply out to a curved convex cutting edge. One corner of this is squared off, apparently an original feature, but the other corner is missing (a very fresh, recent break). The two faces of the axe are identical. There are three very neat breaks of slope towards the cutting edge and running parallel to it. The upper half of the slope, like the …
Created on: Wednesday 8th February 2023
Last updated: Monday 17th April 2023
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: NMS-7E0297
Object type: WEIGHT
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
County: Norfolk
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Circular lead weight, 24mm in diameter, 7mm thick and with a rectangular cross-section. One face is decorated with a pair of concentric ridges within which is a relief design which is probably a rose, although now damaged and unclear; it has a central boss within what may be a ring of broad petals. The other face is flat and undecorated. It weighs 26.9g, which is 0.95oz, so it is likely to have been a 1-ounce weight. There are several lead weights recorded on the database with rose decoration, none particularly like this example; they were probably locally made informal weights of the…
Created on: Monday 30th January 2023
Last updated: Monday 17th April 2023
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: NMS-7DD71B
Object type: SPINDLE WHORL
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
County: Norfolk
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Lead spindle whorl, 31-32mm in diameter and 11-12mm tall. It has a flat underside, with a slight concentric groove, and a smoothly domed top which is decorated with five evenly spaced curving radial ribs or ridges, each c. 2-3mm wide. The central perforation is almost cylindrical, flaring a little from c. 9.5mm at the top to c. 10mm wide at the bottom. It weighs 57.2g.  Excavated parallels with good dates are few, but seem to centre on the late medieval period, perhaps 14th or 15th century.
Created on: Monday 30th January 2023
Last updated: Monday 17th April 2023
Spatial data recorded.

Record ID: NMS-7DA399
Object type: BROOCH
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
County: Norfolk
Workflow stage: Awaiting validation
Copper-alloy medieval annular brooch, now very corroded and with much of its surface missing. The frame is 30.1mm in diameter, and was originally rectangular in cross-section, with rounded corners; where it survives best the frame measures 4.7mm wide and 3.0mm thick. It is undecorated, but has a pin constriction 3.3mm wide and a short, V-shaped nick forming a pin rest opposite this. The pin does not survive. It weighs 5.2g. It is fairly similar in proportions to a decorated copper-alloy annular brooch found in a context of c. 1270-1350 in London (Egan and Pritchard 1991, no. 1313).
Created on: Monday 30th January 2023
Last updated: Monday 17th April 2023
Spatial data recorded.