Late Iron Age settlements are full of copper alloy objects, making them the preferred site category of metal detectorists. High Medieval castle sites, on the other hand, are quite poor in these often distinctive and informative finds.
The picture above shows all the copper alloy and lead that my team of ~15 found in over two weeks of excavations at Landsjö castle this past July, screening the dirt and using a metal detector in our trenches. Only seven objects! We collected 133 pieces of iron in that time, of which 77% are sadly nails in various states of completeness and thus not terribly informative.
- 172 is a piece of folded sheet lead. I’m going to ask the conservator to unfold it, because sometimes they hide magic spells inscribed with runes.
- 173 is a piece of thin embossed foil that broke after we lifted it. It just might be a really debased bracteate coin. Conservation will tell.
- 174 is a half-pipe fitting that has been riveted onto something, maybe a strap. Hoping for some decoration to show up.
- 175 is a rose-shaped embossed-sheet dress spangle, a ströning. Love it!
- 176 is a thick domed sherd, probably from a tripod cooking pot.
- 177 is an 18th century jacket button.
- 178 is a cylindrical cap made of thin sheet, probably also from the 18th century. I don’t know what this may have been part of.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1WypTEm
Late Iron Age settlements are full of copper alloy objects, making them the preferred site category of metal detectorists. High Medieval castle sites, on the other hand, are quite poor in these often distinctive and informative finds.
The picture above shows all the copper alloy and lead that my team of ~15 found in over two weeks of excavations at Landsjö castle this past July, screening the dirt and using a metal detector in our trenches. Only seven objects! We collected 133 pieces of iron in that time, of which 77% are sadly nails in various states of completeness and thus not terribly informative.
- 172 is a piece of folded sheet lead. I’m going to ask the conservator to unfold it, because sometimes they hide magic spells inscribed with runes.
- 173 is a piece of thin embossed foil that broke after we lifted it. It just might be a really debased bracteate coin. Conservation will tell.
- 174 is a half-pipe fitting that has been riveted onto something, maybe a strap. Hoping for some decoration to show up.
- 175 is a rose-shaped embossed-sheet dress spangle, a ströning. Love it!
- 176 is a thick domed sherd, probably from a tripod cooking pot.
- 177 is an 18th century jacket button.
- 178 is a cylindrical cap made of thin sheet, probably also from the 18th century. I don’t know what this may have been part of.
from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1WypTEm
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire