Technical details design and manufacturing techniques Type l

TECHNICAL DETAILS TYPE I

Figure 1 Type l Hawnby (Yorkshire) reconstruction

The most numerous Type (n=41) distinguishable as two-piece cylindrical boxes between 40-73mm in diameter and between 40-75mm in height. With the exception of four boxes with hinged lids, Arncliffe, Finglesham Grave 8, Westfield Grave 2 and Wolverton Grave 2168 the lid assembly is held in the closed position by friction between the inside of the lid and the outside of the base assemblies. Lid and base assemblies are usually held together by chains linked to a wire ring. All are manufactured from copper-alloy sheet metal between 0.05 and 1.00mm in thickness. They employ solder, rivets, or metal clenching in any combination in their construction. Lid tops and body bases are either flat or convex. All use similar manufacturing techniques and can be decorated with repousee and/or engraved designs. With the exception of the Polhill Grave 43 and Dover Painted House boxes and the four boxes with hinged lid (above) they are not difficult to make, and most can be made with low level of skill in 4-6 hours. In this respect they do not represent such prestigious items as Type ll and Type lll boxes which require both design and technical ability to manufacture.

DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES

Type l boxes represent an insular development. They have been compared to Frankish spherical amulet containers but are different in appearance, design, and size. Fortyone boxes are recorded (Table 1), thirty-five from known inhumation. Burial details of those from Aldborough (Smith 1852) (Figure 6), Cransley (Baker 1881-1883) and Stanlake (Stone 1856-1859, 92-100) unknown. Ascot-under- Wychwood, (Figure 7), (Blair and Hills, 2020) a stray find found by metal detection and Dover Painted House box (Philp 2003, 14-25, fig. 52) are the only recorded examples of near complete Type l boxes found outside a burial context. Ashmolean Museum example (Figure 8) is unprovenced. Many were found in a crushed, fragmented, and unstable condition; this was due to a number of factors including acidic soil, human degradation, grave fill pressure and chemical reaction from buried metallic objects. Further damage occurred as a result of clumsy handling during the eighteenth and nineteenth century and poor often non-existence conservation treatment of that period. Now, with professionally supervised excavations and a science-based approach to post excavation research, conservation, and artefact re-construction it is possible to examine in detail original components and the practical working methods used in their manufacture.

he metal used to make Type l boxes is an alloy of copper and tin, bronze. This metal is characterised by an excellent resistance to corrosion and wear, moderate strength combined with high durability. Another influence in selection must relate to its suitability as a decorative material, for not only is it easily marked and patterned with punches and sharp-edged tools, when the metal is polished a high gloss finish is the result. Bronze is an ideal metal for the working processes used to make what is essentially two fabricated seamed tubes, each closed at one end. A sheet of metal c175 x 100 mm in size is sufficient to make most individual boxes, including accessories, split eyelets, rivets, and chains. Box components would have been marked out, decorated, then cut to size by saws and shears evidenced at Lindsay (Hinton and White 1993) and other sites (e g. Mitchell Hill, Thetford). The now decorated body and lid ring would have been shaped around a suitable core former (possibly a tree branch), the seam closed by rivets and/or solder, finally the lid top and body base fitted by the same process or material clenching. An added technical innovation is a hinged lid evident on boxes from Arncliffe (Cale 2000), Finglesham Grave 8 (Hawkes and Grainger 2006, fig. 8.2), Westfield Grave 2 (Lucy et al 2009, 91-94, fig. 4) and Wolverton Grave 2168 (PAS Bucks-337D73), This demonstrates the makers mechanical knowledge and improves the security of boxes. The lack of measurement standards between the largest and smallest boxes leads to the conclusion that they were not made to any specific size or scale or that regional differences can be identified. Instead, each box reflects their owner’s requirement consistent with whatever function they were to perform and the availability of what may have been a near standard size of sheet of metal.

They would have been visually impressive as containers; however, with the notable exception of those with hinged lids and boxes from Ascot-under-Wychwood (Baker and Hills 2021) (Figure 7) Dover Painted House (Figure 9) and Polhill Grave 43 (Philp 2003, 177) (Figure 10), they do not represent high quality skilled metalwork, they lack craftsmanship and sophistication. Type l boxes are not the end product of skilled metal workers of the period, their construction is very basic and most employ low technological manufacturing techniques. The self-sustaining communities in the seventh century would have had the resources, knowledge, and tools to make boxes, they are not difficult to make

Many decorations have been applied freehand without the guidance of pre marked layout. This is evident in the irregular appearance of concentric patterns and misplaced dots on many boxes. Two boxes Uncleby Graves 1 and 3 (Smith 1912) have guidelines scribed onto the metal; notwithstanding the maker was unable to follow the simple pattern with any degree of accuracy, the motifs are badly applied and miss-formed. Other than four Type l boxes, Ascot-under-Wychwood, Dover Painted House (Figure 9), Polhill Grave 43, (Figure 10) and Verulamium Grave 21 (Ager 1989, 219-39, fig. 82) (Figure 11) they display little artistic merit. Decorated with simple repetitive punch dotted patterns evolving around a combination of geometric elements, circles, triangles, straight and angular lines, chevrons, and crosses. Some have a common quincunxal arrangements, effecting further cruciform shapes. The hinged lid Wolverton Grave 2168 box (Figure 12) is further distinguished by an incised runic inscription, possibly applied at a secondary stage after manufacture. Of the forty-one Type l boxes those from Marina Drive Grave B3/ B4 (Matthews 1962, 25-48), Painsthorpe Wold (Mortimer 1905, 113-17, fig. 279) are undecorated, decorative details of the Stanlake box is unrecorded. Three boxes are decorated with incised patterns, Aldborough with what could be considered an unfinished cross on its base, Hurdlow (Bateman 1861, fig. opp. 52) has very faint random geometric decorations. That from Ascot-under-Wychwood has a detailed incised Salin Style ll pattern.

The remaining display (or were said to display) patterns, signs, or symbols in repousse. This method of ornamentation is produced by striking a shaped punch on the internal face of flat metal sheet, this action displaces the metal into 'pimples' or tapered shaped protrusions these stand in low relief on the external surface, perhaps to imitate filigree? Punches of different shapes and sizes were used to produce the various designs, sharp nail like tools to create small dotted geometric lines and circles, smooth radiused punches of a larger diameter made from either metal, fire hardened wood or bone to form higher relief radiused boss shapes. The repousse technique stretches and reduces the thickness of metal at the head of the protrusions and accounts for the sieve-like appearance of some boxes as these raised areas wear during their lifetime and are first to disintegrate after deposition. Of the forty-one Type l boxes, details of four are unknown, two are undecorated. Of the remaining thirty-five and additionally, the lid tops or body bases reused as pendants from Ilam (PAS WMIDS-DC 4EA4) and Marina Drive Grave E3 (Gibson and Harris 1994, 108-118, fig.1) and the metal fragment from the Wolfhamcote box (PAS WAW-DA 3434) 76% (n=28) have some form of cruciform ornamentation.

This high percentage should not be considered coincidental and could imply that Type l boxes had a function that relates to the Christian religion.

Figure 2

Type I Design principles

Figure 3

Type I Assembly features