Laurynas,

I could be wrong, but I imagine it is a type of masonry nail/spike where the lead discs would conform to a crack or hole in a stone or brick wall. It would be used for hanging things on or fastening something to the wall.

Hi Laurynas

I'm not a specialist of this epoch, but maybe this will be useful.

L. Gardeła 2013, p. 285 fig. 4.

L. Gardeła 2013; 'Warrior-women' in Viking Age Scandinavia? A preliminary archaeological study, "Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia", 8: 273-339.

http://www.archeologia.univ.rzeszow.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Leszek-Garde%C5%82a-%E2%80%98Warrior-women%E2%80%99-in-Viking-Age-Scandinavia-A-preliminary-archaeological-study.pdf

or something like this:

M. J. Przybyła 2012, p. 8 Abb. 1, p. 10 Abb. 3.

M. J. Przybyła 2012; Jünger- und spätkaiserzeitliche Metallnadeln aus dem Südteil Nordeuropas: regionale Differenzierung, Verwendung und sozialer Kontext, "Recherchers Archéologiques" N.S., 4: 5-67.

http://www.farkha.nazwa.pl/RechACrac/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Marzena-J.-Przyby%C5%82a.pdf

Best Regards

Maciej Wawrzczak

It could have been one of three or four legs of a 20 cm high table of footstool.

I would tend to agree with James that it is a nail used in construction.

Do not forget that there are an " iron pin, decorated with three lead-tin alloy discs (see image)". as Laurybas described it in the original question. If it was just a nail to hang something, one wouldn't need three tin alloy discs at various distances. As said earlier, the discs are meant to be decoration and a leg of a footstoll or a stand for something would make more sense. Of course, one would need 3 or 4 of such lewgs.

 Laurynas,

The only other thing that I can think of is a spike for a shield. See illustration.

A 20 cm long spike for a shield ?  Never seen such a thing; also not very useful since a shield is not a weapon to attack but to keep hidden from any weapon to kill a man. Besides that, one blow of a sword would get rid of this decorated 20 cm long pin/spike. Nice try, though. 

Jan,

I do not know how sturdy a spike like that would be in a wooden shield, but all that would remain in archaeological context would be the spike, boss (if made of metal) and rivets for the arm straps. However, I am not just making that up out of fancy. If you look at the early 17th C. combat shield from Calvert (1907) you can see from the shadow that it has a fairly long spike. So does the German shield in Demmin (1911). Grose (1786) also illustrates several spikes on the foreheads of horse armor.

Hewitt (1855 v.3:72) notes during the Anglo-Saxon period that "the round targets of the Teutons were named by the poets 'moony shields.' They were convex, and in the centre was a boss of metal, generally terminating in a button or in a spike, but sometimes without either."

Laking (1920 v.1:10) notes concerning a Saxon drawing in the British Museum, "he holds out in front of him a round, convex shield with a spiked boss in the middle."

Not saying that it is from a shield, but just suggesting he check out that possibility.

Regards,

JAG

Hi James,

Thanks for the published data concerning spikes on shield referring to the past 3 centuries. But, our find is from 500 AD and from that period I do not know any spike cum shield.

Dear colleagues,

Thank you for your answers and interesting versions. A leg of a table and a spike for a stone/brick wall are probably possible only if considering this item a very distant import (although this is not impossible). There is nothing like a table with metal legs from the discussed period found so far in Lithuania. And stone/brick buildings appeared only centuries later here. This doeas not deny that the item could have been a spike to be hammered into a wooden wall.

The version about the shield boss spike seems to me probable because of the context. In the barrow next to this one, a warrior grave was found containing a shield boss (see the illustration), and bosses are rather common for the period. None of them has a hole on the front part, though. But maybe spikes like this could have been used for shields without iron bosses, e.g. with wooden ones? The sheme by James would explain a lot: distances between the alloy rings, thickness and sharpness of the iron part. Do you probably know any published analogies for a similar scheme? I think I will have to study about shield bosses of the Barbarian period more. There is a fundamental study by Zieling N. (Studien zu germanischen Schilden der Spat Latene- und der romischen Kaiserzeit im freien Germanien, 1989, I, II). I‘ll be back if I find something of interest.

P.S. This artefact was found in a female burial, which would seem to conflict with the version of a shield boss spike. But weapons in female burials are rather common here. And the shield or part of might have probably had some meaning as a grave good for a widow of a perished warrior or so. Such images are possible in Barbarian world-views, I guess.

The depth of space between the discs makes me think it is not for a shield boss as the metal is reasonably thin; the gap looks too large; so I still think it is more for securing a building structure together 

I think it fairly obvious that it's original purpose was as a nail or spike ... but how to explain the disks? In that regard, Jan Gunneweg has provided a (the most) plausible explanation, so far. Alternatively, I suggest that perhaps the spike was being used for a secondary purpose, that is, as a [expedient] tool (a punch or perforator) in making those white-metal disks (jewelry pieces, flat beads ?).

I believe this was probably originally forged for use as a spike (large nail), but has been applied to a secondary purpose as an expedient tool, that is, a ringmakers mandrel. I invite you to view the video at the link below, that shows how, in lieu of a formal ringmakers [or beadmaker's] mandrel, such a tapered spike could be used in the making of finger rings or beads from perforated coins. 

https://youtu.be/RiCFOwChJwA?t=371

Thank you for the video. I will have to study if there are any ornaments or other items with similar pentagonal holes. Now I cannot remember any, but there might be. I will have to check some literature. Probably perforated Roman coins used as pendants.

I doubt they were using such a soft metal as lead in making rings or other jewelry. However, in antiquity lead was also used as a bushing.