Photograph: Double-sided comb riveted together with a central plate. There are 8 rusted iron rivets along the centre. Most of the teeth have broken off.
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Comb

Date: 500s

Combs served a practical purpose of removing lice from the hair, but long well-groomed hair was in many cultures a sign of nobility. Fine combs were given as gifts, and even buried with the dead. Double-sided combs like this were made by riveting flat plates of bone between antler side frames, and then cutting the teeth. This one was found on the site of an early Saxon settlement in Wilmslow Road, Hammersmith, where excavations in 1990 uncovered the remains of three small rectangular houses.

Accession number: HAM90[287]<39>*

Place of collection: Distillery site, Winslow Road, Rannoch Road, Hammersmith, London W6 [Hammersmith and Fulham]

Material: bone; antler

Measurements: L 160 mm; W 55 mm

Gallery location: Case 2.1

Related material

Subjects:

Anglo-Saxons
Dress

Objects:

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