Sarre Grave 75

LXXV. A woman's grave. Several beads in the centre, two of amethyst [KAS 296]; two small bronze buckles [KAS 319 & KAS 320], some keys, a bronze pin[1], and a broken knife.[1] Further cleaning has revealed a very peculiar shape to this pin, the point of which is bent back into a barb or hook, not unlike that of a modern crochet-needle. The woodcut shows this inverted point, as well as a small indentation in the side of the pin, neither of which, I think, are traceable to accident or decay. The latter is hollowed into the side opposite the hook, and may have served as a guide or rest to the forefinger in its use. Can we suppose our Saxon ancestresses to have been educated in the mysteries of crochet? Or may not this very delicate hook have been intended for pulling threads through the stitches, before the invention of eyed needles, as a finer and easier substitute for the tweezers which are supposed to have been so used? – T. G. F.