Pin, hairpin

Roman bone hairpin with a decorated head and a broken shaft. The head of the pin is carved into the shape of a female bust with an elaborate hairstyle. The chest is trapezium shaped with a double set of engraved lines on the short edges. There is a circular collar around the neck. The face consists of a rectangular mouth and trapezoidal nose with circular eyes, the right higher than the left. The hair is decorated in a cross hatch pattern, imitating curls, with a bifurcated nodule on the top (perhaps depicting two hairpins). The reverse is flat with the hair decorated in carved chevrons.
It was fashionable for women in the Flavian period (AD 69-96) to wear their hair in curls, piled up and pinned on top of their head. This is perhaps what is being attempted to be shown here, but the crude nature of the design makes it difficult to know for certain. There are other, much finer, examples of hairpins decorated in a similar way in London Museum (object no. 559) and British Museum. This example was found on the Thames foreshore near Cannon Street station, City of London.