On this day...11th August
By pure coincidence today is going to be a ‘pin’ day. Starting with two finds made on the same day by the same person.
S. Mansell found this absolute beauty (above) in Trench 16 on Chalkpit Field in 2013. It is in such good condition and probably used as a dress pin. The point is still sharp!
Only minutes later the same finder returned jubilantly with a second pin (below), also in very good condition as you can see. This pin has been hipped, which is the term used for the swelling about two thirds of the way down. This was to help keep the pin in place. We will have to look closely for other finds from this context as it may well suggest an area of specific activity perhaps.
Forward in time to the same day just three years later in 2016 and Jon Cousins found this dress pin, also on Chalkpit Field and this time from Trench 22. Made from copper-alloy it has a polyhedral head and is also hipped. As is common with this style of pin it is also collared, the term for the band directly beneath the head.
All of these pins are common finds on Anglo-Saxon settlement sites but we are delighted that our examples are all complete and in such good condition.
Here’s another from August 11th 1999. A near total eclipse of the sun. The actual path of totality passed over the UK further to the South. Luckily it happened about lunch time so little digging time was lost! This was taken outside the marquee on Boneyard.