English: Incomplete Roman bone pin. This pin is simply a tapering shaft with a plain conical head. The shaft is circular in section, and in this case broken towards the point end. The break is diagonal and worn smooth, suggesting it occured in antiquity. Most of the original surface is now missing, but it partially survives and is smooth, glossy and dyed green. The exposed surface is abraded, rough and beige in colour. The break surface is green, showing where the dye has penetrated into the porous bone material.Pins of this type were used throughout the Roman period, but being dyed, this may be an earlier example. It has a surviving length of 58.12mm, a maximum diameter of 5.44mm and weighs 1.65g. Examples of pins with plain conical heads can be found in Crummy 1983, page 20, figure 17.
Depicted place
(County of findspot) Essex
Date
ROMAN
Accession number
FindID: 67619 Old ref: ESS-DD8676 Filename: DSCN0873.JPG
Credit line
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme started in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales. Finds are published at https://finds.org.uk
Attribution: The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum
You are free:
to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.