Jünger- und spätkaiserzeitliche Metallnadeln aus dem Südteil Nordeuropas: regionale Differenzierung, Verwendung und sozialer Kontext

The presented paper is devoted to a relatively poorly known group of artefacts, namely the metal pins which formed a typical component of female dress within the Younger and Late Roman Period in Scandi - navia. It is possible to distinguish two main kinds of objects: larger and mainly decorated silver or bronze pins and smaller ones, made of bronze, silver, gold or iron and occuring often in pairs. In both cases, more detailed typo-chronological divisions as well as further findings concerning spatial distribution or depositional context of described objects have been proposed. They led to the following conclusions: (1) within the Younger and Late Roman Period, larger metal pins were used as a head ornamentation and restricted to the rich dress of the limited group of adult females (only adultus and maturus age classes); (2) the forms and decorations of larger pins differ widely among particular regions of Scandinavia, although individual examples are known which represent foreign stylistic traditions and, in the case of some types, a tendency has been observed in the styli - stic unification during the C2–C3 phases – both phenomena may perhaps be explained as a result of marital exchanges between the elite families of different parts of the area in question; (3) small pins are characteristic particularly of Jutland and Norway during the C2–D phases; (4) they occur in “mid-wealth” female burial assemblages and in the richest male graves (only examples made of gold in this case); (5) in both contexts they can be interpreted as chest ornamentation.