English: CORONER'S REPORT

Zoomorphic terminal, head of a pin.

Description of find

Flat, silver, openwork, relief terminal, parcel gilt and with niello inlay and two garnet roundels set back to back; damaged, missing about one third, but with part of the pin shaft preserved. A flat, openwork terminal with two antithetic, Animal Style birds, the contours of which are executed in niello inlay framed by a fine gold border. While one bird is almost completely preserved, the other one is missing apart from some of its tail. The preserved bird has his beak open and seems to hold it above a gilt detail, perhaps a small figure. As soil is obscuring part of the arrangement, this is, however, not certain. Between the birds and serving as a perch for them is a garnet roundel enclosed by a plain and a beaded frame. The arrangement on the back of the pin is equivalent. About 0.7 cms of the round, grooved, nielloed pin shaft are preserved and still show traces of gilding.

Discussion

The arrangement of the birds follows the depiction of certain types of bird brooches and can be compared closely to Frankish garnet-inlaid or gilt bird and bird-headed pins with very similar shafts (e.g. Merowingerzeit, cat. nos. VII.10.23 and VII.48.31). Kentish examples of bird and bird-headed pins can be cited as well, e.g. from Wingham (7^th cent.). An example of a single, late 5^th to 6^th-century, bird-headed pin terminal from Nottinghamshire was recorded in 2002 (2002 T120, TAR 2002. cat. no. 46, p. 28f). The Otford pin, however, differs from many other finds in that it has decoration on both sides and two complete antithetic birds, rather than just paired bird heads.

Scientific analysis

Non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis of the surface of the pin-head set with garnets and inlaid with niello indicated a silver content of approximately 94%, the rest being copper and some lead. Gold and traces of mercury were also detected in the areas of gilding. Both the red stones were identified by Raman spectroscopy as garnets. Examination of the garnets under the binocular microscope indicated that the garnets were probably set on foils.