HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE NAILS? A NEW, MULTI-PERIOD METHODOLOGY AND TYPOLOGY FOR RECORDING IRON NAILS

Abstract

This paper sets out new recommendations for recording structural iron nails. Despite their ubiquity, iron nails have received limited analytical and interpretative attention and recording practices are highly variable. Too often current recording is time-consuming and costly without providing meaningful information. This paper proposes a new recording methodology, developed through analysis of the Roman structural nail assemblage from the MHI A14 Cambridge-Huntingdon excavations alongside experiments in nail shaping, with wider context provided by medieval and post-medieval assemblages from the City of London. This approach includes a new nail typology, recommendations for bulk recording of basic details for whole assemblages (using counts and typologies), alongside detailed recording (shank morphology and further metric data) for certain nail groups. Shank morphology is a particularly important aspect proposed here, being indicative of how nails were used in antiquity.