Viking Age stick pins: A re-evaluation of the chronology, morphology and typology in Irish Sea contexts

Dudley Martin (MPhil Candidate)

Viking Age stick pins: A re-evaluation of the chronology, morphology and typology in Irish Sea contexts

Supervisor: Mr. John Sheehan
Early Medieval and Viking Research Group

Overview

This project seeks to update the information regarding Viking stick pins and to bring into the research data from the decades since the last work was written regarding them.  The discoveries over the past decades stand to add further to the works of O’Rahilly and Foster.  The finds stand to expand significantly the previous chronologies, typologies and morphologies.  And as previous archaeologists have chosen whether they would use Fosters grouping or O’Rahillys it is needed for a coherent reworking of them both to take into account the widespread nature of the Scandinavian settlement within the Irish Sea region that goes beyond modern borders.  It is the plan of this project to create a new vision of the Viking stick pin that all archaeologists can utilize to establish the stick pin within excavation contexts in Ireland, Britain, or beyond. 

The National Museum of Ireland's collection of stick pins will be examined for those excavated from the various Dublin surveys as well as from other Irish contexts. Research into the specifics of the holdings of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the National Museum Wales, the National Museum Scotland and the British Museum will be used to establish a sampling methodology influenced both by an evaluation of the grouping systems established by Celie O’Rahilly and Dr Sally M Foster as well as the pins within the collections falling within the Viking Age timeframe.   Excavation reports of Irish and Hiberno-Scandinavian sites will prove useful in supplying the important context in which these artefact types have been discovered. In addition research will be continued into exploring the occurrence and state of knowledge of stick pins in the Irish Sea region. 

This project will examine the context in which stick pins have been in when excavated; this information will be researched in order to formulate a series of research questions examining the potential uses of stick pins in addition to uses as clothing fasteners.   Yet in addition to uses, the questions must be asked if they indicate status, or not, and were they used as markers of Hiberno-Scandinavian identity?