IRON AGE LINCH PIN

-100

A cast copper-alloy Iron Age linch pin terminal, which is the foot of the pin. The foot has a deep circular socket, inside a cylindrical, tapering shaft. The aperture at the open end of the linch pin is now empty, this would once have held the iron pin, it has long since corroded away, leaving behind iron staining and pitted remains. The exterior of the shaft is cylindrical and bulbous, with a collar around the open end. The shaft tapers to a waisted area, before expanding and altering direction to form the flat circular plate. The flat plate terminal sits on the same plan as the side of the shaft. It is undecorated. The surface of the object is pitted but remains in a good condition, with a mid brownish-green patina. Linch pin terminals date to the late Iron Age period, circa 100BC to 50AD. Sometimes this shaped terminal of a composite linch pin is known as 'hoof' type terminal (Hutcheson, N. 2004 Later Iron Age Norfolk: Metalwork, landscape and society B.A.R. 361 p. 109). Hutcheson illustrates similar examples, No. 46, and dates these to circa 100BC to circa 100AD. The closest local parallels can be seen in Stead, p44-6. These examples were found in cemetery contexts in East Yorkshire.