IRON AGE LINCH PIN

-100

A cast copper alloy terminal, probably from a composite linch pin, of later Iron Age or early Roman date c.100 BC - 120 AD. The terminal is complete, although abraded and waisted by corrosion and movement in the ploughsoil. Linch pins are composite; in this example the terminal cap and iron pin are both missing; what survives is the decorated foot terminal. In shape the foot is conical being broadly oval in plan and sub-rectangular in profile. The foot has a deep sub-square (slightly D shaped) tapering socket; it measures 10.6mm width, 9.6mm width, the metal is 4.0mm thick, and the socket is 16.1mm deep (although the last half tapers drastically thereby making the upper socket usable to a depth of about 8.6mm). This socket would have held an iron pin; there is no evidence of this suggesting that the foot may have separated from the pin prior to deposition. The exterior surface of the pin tapers in width to a blunted / rounded edge. On one side of this end is a small loop. The loop is integrally cast and wasted; it has an internal diameter of 3.3mm. The exterior of the foot has been decorated with cast curvilinear lines or lobes. Either side of the socket are two semicircular lobes forming two crescents. Where two of the join, a vertical cast ridge descends to the foot, this ridge is decorated with incised (or more likely punched) crescents. Either side of the loop at the foot are two further cast roundels, at the centre of both are circular depressions, the one of which is much deeper than the other. There is no evidence of these 'cell like depressions' being filled with coral or enamel. A third depression is positioned between the two roundels on the lower surface of the mount at the end of the vertical rib. The positioning of the roundels alongside the loop creates the form of a bird or possibly a ram with curled horns. This interpretation of the design though maybe happenstance. The artefact is a mid green colour with a well preserved polished patina within the roundels and loop; elsewhere the patina is abraded and slightly powdery being a lighter greyish green colour.The linch pin measures: 21.1mm length, is 16.6mm wide and 15.6mm thick. It weighs 10.94 gramsA direct parallel for this has not been found. However, it is similar to the foot sections of a number of other linch pins recorded on the PAS database; for example YORYM-B3FDA2 from Market Weighton Area, East Riding of Yorkshire, LANCUM-D91806 from the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, and IOW-BD7985 from the Isle of Weight. 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.With the lack of a direct parallel an alternative identification has been suggested due to the depth and tapering nature of the socket. This alternative is that this is the end cap from a drinking horn or possible a staff. Possible similarities can be seen in PAS records Martham Area, Yorkshire (NMS-B52CD5) and rather distantly to a horn cap from Needham, Norfolk (SF-882904)