A Girl's Best Friend: the role of hairpins in defining female identity in Roman London

Roman hairpins are a large part of most collections of Roman small finds, but have never been studied to the depth of their potential. Likewise, the study of female identity in Roman archaeology has often been hindered by the historical male dominance over the primary sources. This research project engages with the archaeological material to examine the role of hairpins in defining female identity in Roman London. The large collection of bone hairpins housed by the Museum of London and MOLA was chosen as the dataset to use in this study. These are first considered collectively to assess the various methods applied to the interpretation of hairpins, including the use of Crummy (1983) and Greep (1983) bone pin typologies and Cool’s (1990) metric analysis of metal pins. After this, a more contextual approach is taken, with the use of case study sites in London. Together, these methods are used to examine the issues of cultural change and personal adornment for women in London. The data presented by this project shows the potential of hairpins in engaging with Roman women through the archaeological record. It demonstrates the need to create a new typology before going more in depth with the metric, distribution and contextual analysis of hairpins in Roman London.