Double-Sided Antler and Bone Combs in Late Roman Britain: Stylistic Groups, Context and Status

Double-Sided Antler and Bone Combs in Late Roman Britain provides a detailed study and catalogue of a comb type introduced in the 4th century AD, with decorative profiles and zoomorphic end-plates. It focuses on combs from burials, stylistically relevant end-plates, and those providing good dating or contextual evidence, answering questions of typology, chronology, and social distribution. Winchester has a substantial number of combs, suggesting a comb workshop in the town and other workshops in the north and east.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 148 pages
Publication date: 16 May 2024
Publisher: Archaeopress

Double-Sided Antler and Bone Combs in Late Roman Britain (DSA) offers the first detailed study and catalogue of a comb type that represents a new technology introduced into Britain towards the end of the 4th century AD and a major signifier of the late fourth- to fifth-century transition. Their end-plates were worked into a variety of decorative profiles, some clearly zoomorphic. Over time, this decorative styling passed from elaborate to rudimentary, adding to the dating evidence for individual combs. As many combs survive only as small fragments, data collection has not been absolute but has concentrated on combs from burials, or with stylistically relevant end-plates, or those providing good dating or contextual evidence, the main aim of the study being to answer questions of typology, chronology, and social distribution. A particularly distinctive feature within the assemblage from funerary contexts is the substantial number of these combs from Winchester, which together make up nearly a quarter of the wider British assemblage. It is proposed that a comb workshop was established in the town, and there is some evidence based on style and distribution that points to other workshops in the north and east, but these were not necessarily large and in some cases they appeared to serve only a local community, while Winchester and its hinterland appear to lie at the heart of the comb data.

Weight: 542g
Dimension: 289 x 205 x 11 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781803276441