Two Hairpins from Surrey Author(s): Joanna Bird Source: Britannia, Vol. 35 (2004), pp.

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Notes
The Haverfield Bequest: A Further Note. Alan Bowman writes: Following Malcolm Todd's brief history of the Bequest (Britannia 34 (2003), 35-40), it might be useful for readers of this periodical to note that the Administrators meet twice a year, normally in early May and early December, and that applications for small grants relevant to the study of Roman Britain should be sent by 15 April or 15 November to Mrs Lynda Smithson, Institute of Archaeology, 34-36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OXi 2PG. The present Administrators are: Professor A.K. Bowman (Chairman), Professor M.G. Fulford, Dr C.J. Howgego, Mr K.S. Painter, Professor A.I. Wilson, Professor M.Todd, Professor J.J. Wilkes. I also take the opportunity to make a small factual correction: Professor Sheppard Frere was Chairman of the Administrators until 1986, Professor Martin Harrison from 1987 to 1991, and the writer from 1992 to date. Brasenose College, Oxford

Two Hairpins from Surrey. Joanna Bird writes: Among recent finds of Romano-British objects recovered by metal-detectorists from sites in Surrey are two hairpins whose unusual designs make them of more than local interest.1 1. (FIG. 1.1) Cast copper-alloy pin with a relatively thick plating of silver or tin, reported as found at Westcott, near Dorking. The pin is now 54 mm long, lacking the point and a small element from the tip of the head. The top of the pin is in the shape of a woman's head with an elaborate hairstyle; it is set above a pair of cordons with traces of vertical fluting between them. The face was originally framed by a high plain band representing a diadem, apparently with some small additional ornament on the peak. Behind this band the hair is drawn back into a low bun, emphasised by engraved lines; ringlets or curls behind the ears are marked by three small incised circles. The face itself is now lost and was probably in a different material, set into the surrounding hair in the manner of a gemstone; it was secured by a thin band round the edge of the hollow in which it sat. This band is now partially bent over the hollow, which is rough and unfinished inside and was clearly not intended to be visible. No parallel for a pin with a similar inlaid face has apparently been previously recorded, and no element that could have formed such an inlay has been identified. A number of materials and designs can be suggested: perhaps the most likely, in view of the widespread tradition of decorating bone pins with female busts, is a face carved from bone or ivory. Other possibilities include a semi-precious stone such as a carnelian with the features cut in relief,2 a cameo with the features shown in contrasting colours, or a glass setting, either cast in relief or in the form of a bead cut from a millefiori cane showing a face.3 The pin belongs to Cool's Group 18, Sub-group A, pins with a human figure or bust as the head, a design which is rare in metal.4 A close parallel, but with the face apparently cast in one piece with the rest, is provided by an unstratifiedpin from Richborough: it shares the plain raised band round the face and a closely

Forotherrecent Collections. in theSurrey 1 Chance findsfromthecountyarenow published Archaeological regularly andBird 1996;Bird 1997a;Bird 1997b;Bird 1999a;Bird1999b;Williams findsof Romano-British objectssee Alexander 2001. 1996;Willams1999;Williams 2 children's headsset in an elaborate Fora similardesign,see the carnelian ear-rings pairof gold, pearl,andcarnelian andNikolaishvili1994,fig. 25, nos 34 and35, andfig. 26, b. froma richburialin Georgia: Apakidze 3 I owe this last suggestion to HilaryCool, who noteshoweverthatsuchbeads,whichdatefromthe earlyto mid-first fromBritain.Forcontinental beenrecorded examples,see Rtitti1988, 91 andpls 26 and A.D.,have not apparently century 31, nos 1905-1907. 4 Cool 1990, 168 andfig. 10, nos 6, 7, and 11.

2004 forthePromotion of Roman Studies to Publish: TheSociety Exclusive Licence reserved. CWorld copyright

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tt

II

-;

1
0 1cm

FIG. 1.

fromSurrey. Scale 1:1.(DrawnbyDavid W Williams) Copper-alloy hairpins

similar arrangementof the hair behind it, as well as the same style of moulding on the shaft. The face has a fringe of hair on the forehead, and Wilson suggests that the head may represent a male wearing a hood,5 but this seems unlikely in view of the hairstyle and of the custom of depicting female busts on pins. Pins decorated with female heads, including on occasion the images of goddesses, are much more frequently found in bone, and vary considerably in the quality of their carving and finishing. Johns notes that most hairpins were not merely functional but an integral part of the hairstyle, while the ornament on them often included a symbolic as well as a decorative element, conferring protection and good fortune together with an attractive appearance.6 Henig has suggested that, like other busts, those on pins may sometimes represent imagines of the dead,7 introducing the possibility that some of them may have been set up in a family shrine ratherthan used to arrange the hair. Whether this was the case with the Surrey pin, it is clearly a most unusual and interesting addition to the corpus of Romano-British pins. 2. (FIG. 1.2) Complete cast copper-alloy pin, 74 mm long, reported as found along the Hog's Back ridge between Guildford and Farnham.The terminal is in the shape of a claw-hammer,with the hammerhead on one side and a forked claw on the other; a raised lozenge on the top gives a realistic impression of the way the iron head sat on the top of its wooden haft. The details of the casting are emphasised by incised lines. The shaft of the pin is rectangularat the head but becomes more rounded and tapers to a point; it is now slightly bent. The claw-hammer is a tool used by carpenters, and while iron claws for the removal of nails are well attested in the Roman period,8 finds of claws combined with a hammer head are exceedingly rare, adding to

5 6 7 8

Wilson1968, 100 andpl. XLII,no. 166. Johns1996, 137-43. Henig 1977,359. Forexample,Boon 1974,fig. 41, no. 11.

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the interest of this pin. A small example of such a hammer, probably from Roman Egypt, is illustrated with other tools in a discussion of Roman furniture making.9 A second, larger one is recorded as coming from the Walbrook in London in 1933-34, but this has the head set on a pair of long flanges that would have helped fix it to the haft, an unusual feature for a Roman hammer.10 The Surrey pin, which shows the more usual method of attachment, with the haft passing through a hole in the head, is thus a valuable piece of evidence for the use of this type of tool by Roman carpenters. The pin belongs to Cool's Group 18, Sub-group C, comprising pins with objects as their heads; apart from a single pin with a caduceus head, all the pins recorded for this sub-group have axe-shaped heads.11 From the additional solar motifs decorating some of the axe-headed pins, and from the frequency of axe-headed pins and other model axes and axe-shaped brooches on temple sites, Cool suggests that they may have been intended as votive offerings rather than as straightforward hairdressing accessories, a suggestion which is also made by Johns.12 Smiths' hammers and axe-hammers were certainly associated with the Celtic Smith God - he is shown with a hammer on a pottery fragment from Corbridge, for example,13 and hammers occur with other smiths' tools on votive pottery14and on ritual items such as the bronze sceptre-binding from the Farley Heath temple15 - and there seems no reason why other craftsmen should not have dedicated similar images, perhaps in this case to Minerva as patroness of crafts.16The rathervague provenance recorded for the pin could include the area of the Wanboroughtemples, so that a votive context is not impossible. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am most grateful to Lindsay Allason-Jones, Hilary Cool, Stephen Greep and Martin Henig for their comments on the figured pin, and to Dr Cool and Professor W.H. Manning for their comments on the hammerheaded pin. I would also like to thank David Williams for his drawings of the pins and for bringing them to my attention, and the finders, Richard Girling and J.E. Lyness, who made them available for study. 14 Kings Road, Guildford BIBLIOGRAPHY Aldred, C. 1957: 'Furniture: to the end of the Roman Empire', in C. Singer, E.J. Holmyard, A.R. Hall and T.J. Williams (eds), A History of Technology, Vol.II: the Mediterranean Civilizations and the Middle Ages, Oxford, 221-39 Alexander, M., and Bird, J. 1996: 'Two Roman phallic pendants from Surrey', Surrey Archaeol. Collect. 83, 245-6 Apakidze, A., and Nikolaishvili, V. 1994: 'An aristocratic tomb of the Roman period from Mtskheta, Georgia', Antiq. Journ. 74, 16-54 Bird, J. 1997a: 'A Romano-British clasp-knife from North Holmwood', Surrey Archaeol. Collect. 84, 185-6 Bird, J. 1997b: 'A Romano-British linch-pin from Chelsham', Surrey Archaeol. Collect. 84, 187-9 Bird, J. 1999a: 'A Romano-British cosmetic mortar from Chipstead', Surrey Archaeol. Collect. 86, 206-7 Bird, J. 1999b: 'A Roman cavalry pendant from Westcott', Surrey Archaeol. Collect. 86, 208-9 Boon, G.C. 1974: Silchester: the Roman Townof Calleva, Newton Abbot

9 Aldred1957,fig. 206, e. 10 Collingwood in Merrifield is also illustrated andRichmond 1965,pl. 125, but shown 1969,pl. XX, g; the hammer on the unusual W.H.Manning, who commented fromthe side so thatthe claw is notvisible.Professor designof theflanges, a secondsimilarexamplein the samecollection(pers.comm.). has recorded 11 Cool 1990, 168 andfig. 11, nos 2 and3; see also Green1981, 256-8 andfig. 2.
12 Johns 1996, 143.

14 Forexample,Hammerson andMurray 1978, 369 andfig. 166, no. 1273. 15 Goodchild1938. 16 Aldred1957,fig. 204, showsimagesof carpenters at workfroma piece of gold-painted glass;one of themis seated his work. or directing who is apparently in frontof Minerva encouraging

13 Manning 1976, pl. III.

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Collingwood, R.G., and Richmond, I. 1969: The Archaeology of Roman Britain, London Cool, H.E.M. 1990: 'Roman metal hair pins from southern Britain', Archaeol. Journ. 147, 148-82 Goodchild, R.G. 1938: 'A priest's sceptre from the Romano-Celtic temple at Farley Heath, Surrey', Antiq. Journ. 18, 391-6 Green, M. 1981: 'Model objects from military areas of Roman Britain', Britannia 12, 253-69 Hammerson, M.J., and Murray,C. 1978: 'Other Roman pottery [from 1-7 St Thomas Street]', in J. Bird, A.H. Graham, H. Sheldon and P. Townend (eds), Southwark Excavations 1972-74, London, 337-75 Henig, M. 1977: 'Death and the Maiden: funerary symbolism in daily life', in J. Munby and M. Henig (eds), Roman Life and Art in Britain, BAR 41, Oxford, 347-66 Johns, C. 1996: The Jewellery of Roman Britain, London Manning, W.H. 1976: Catalogue of Romano-British Ironwork in the Museum of Antiquities Newcastle upon Tyne,Newcastle upon Tyne Merrifield, R. 1965: The Roman City of London, London 4. Die Gldser, Zurich Riitti, B. 1988: Beitrdge zum rdmischen Oberwinterthur-Vitudurum Williams, D. 1996: 'Some recent finds from East Surrey', Surrey Archaeol. Collect. 83, 165-86 Williams, D. 1999: 'Some recent finds from Surrey', Surrey Archaeol. Collect. 86, 171-97 Williams, D. 2001: 'Finds from Surrey 1997-9', Surrey Archaeol. Collect. 88, 309-31 Wilson, M.G. 1968: 'Other objects of bronze, iron, silver, lead, bone, and stone', in B.W. Cunliffe (ed.), Fifth Report on the Excavations of the Roman Fort at Richborough, Kent, Rep. Res. Comm. Soc. Antiq. London 23, London, 93-110

The God Silvanus Callirius and RIB 194, from Colchester. Andrew Breeze writes: A small bronze plate found in 1946 on the outskirts of Colchester, Essex, casts light on Celtic religion and language. Its inscription has been read: DEO SILVANO CALLIRIO D(ONVM) CINTVSMVS AERARIVS V(OTVM) S(OLVIT) L(IBENS) M(ERITO), 'To the god Silvanus Callirius, Cintusmus the coppersmith willingly and deservedly fulfilled as a gift his vow'.17 Although Silvanus (mentioned by Vergil, Horace, and Ovid) is familiar as a Roman god of woods and other wild places, Callirius has been more problematic. Richmond noted that the name is unknown in Gaul.18Anne Ross relates it to Welsh coll 'hazel', which she thinks apt for a woodland god; she refers to Mac Cuill 'son of hazel' in Irish mythology, and the discovery of hazel leaves and nuts in a well at Ashill (TF 88 04), near Swaffham in Norfolk.19 She later describes the building near which the plate was found as one of many shrines where Roman deities were equated with Celtic ones, Silvanus being merged in British minds with the god Callirius, whose name perhaps meant 'he of the hazel wood'.20 This assimilation of Silvanus with a local god fits modern views of him as a benign deity, whose cult (regarded by some as a popular one, with few elite dedications) was spread throughout the Empire.21 This note challenges Anne Ross's etymology. It is true that hazel (Corylus avellana) once had a powerful reputation for magic. In Ireland it was a tree of healing; in English folklore it was guarded by demons; in Scotland its nut was thrown at witches; its wood is still used for the pseudo-science of divining.22 But hazels can have no direct link with Callirius. So much is shown by philology. Welsh and Irish coll 'hazel' derive from Celtic *kosl- 'hazel', a cognate of Latin corilus (and English hazel).23 The persistent first o in early Celtic forms must rule out a connection with British-Latin Callirius. If this Essex god was not one of hazels, how do we explain his name? We should associate him ratherwith Welsh celli 'grove' and Old Irish caill 'wood, forest'. These have been derived from Celtic *kalli (with long final vowel), from a root *kel- 'cut' (primitive people thinking of woods as things one cut down).24 On this basis Callirius would have a name virtually synonymous with that of Silvanus; he would be a god of woods,
17 Collingwood andWright1965,no. 194. 18 Richmond 1955, 194.

19 Ross 1974,64. 20 Ross 1974,77. 21 Rives 1996, 1408. 22 Plummer 1910, cliii-v; Grigson1958,247-8. 23 Vendryes 1987, 157-8. 24 Vendryes 1987, 13.