Reperti di metallo

During the Aïn Wassel excavation 42 metal objects were recorded. Amongst them 29 are made of iron, ten of copper alloy, one of silver, one of lead and one of iron with some copper parts. The largest groups of finds were collected in rooms 15 (15 objects) and 8 (13 objects) and are well preserved. Smaller groups or single objects were scattered in the other rooms of the farm. The metal assemblage consists of agricultural and wood or stone working tools, as well as of domestic and ornamental objects. A great part of these objects, as a chisel, shears, an axe-hammer, a hoe, some knifes and nails and further unidentified metal pieces, could not be precisely dated, because of the long uses of these tools with unvaried features during the centuries. On the other side a few finds represent very important Byzantine metal objects: an interesting copper alloy boiling jug with handle and stopper, realised of two hammered foils joined together, can be dated, on the basis of other similar finds, to the late 6th- 7th century. At the same period belongs a significant belt buckle of the Siracusa Type, which is the second most represented belt buckle in northern Africa. Approximately contemporary are also a short and simple silver hair pin and a copper alloy hinge of a disappeared wooden box. An upper part of an elegant copper alloy candelabrum could be interpreted, on the other hand, as a recycling or exchange piece, whereby further information is lacking. The only finger ring found in the farm seems to be more ancient than the mentioned Byzantine objects, as its form and decoration go back roughly to the 5th century AD. Due to their relationship to blades the section about metals includes also some whetstones set at the end of the chapter.