Context (Display)
Found mounted on a wooden display board with 1883.538 B. A handwritten label affixed to the front of the board reads: 'from Surveyors chains. ?Pendants (bronze) 1. Cambridge (Prof. T. McK. Hughes). 2. -- ?Cambridgeshire. Camb. Ant. Soc. 83.C.A.S.538 a-b'. A handwritten label affixed to the back of the board reads: 'Cambridge Prof. Hughes. Top.'
Event Date
Author: David Kay

Description (Labels & Markings)
A handwritten label affixed to the object reads: 'Cambridge Prof Hughes'.
Event Date
Author: David Kay

Context (Found together / assemblage)
Found mounted on a wooden display board with 1883.538 B.
Event Date
Author: David Kay

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card for 1883.538 A-B: 'Two Bronze PENDANTS, three lobed plain, flat.'
Event Date 3/9/1986
Author: maa

Context (Related Documents)
See 'Report on Collections Research and Cataloguing Project on Post Medieval 'To Be Disposed Of' Material' by David Kay in the archive (Doc.474) for background information.
Event Date 2019
Author: Lucie Carreau

Context (Analysis)
Cf. various similar tags in the online database of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (e.g. BERK-1BB606, DENO-696B32, NLM-A1D804 and NLM-CC2223). The object description for BERK-1BB606 (a four-pronged tag) notes "[t]he surveying chain was first recorded by Edmund Gunter in 1579 [...] The surveying chain was marked at every 10 links by tags or tallies, at 10 links a single pointed tag, at 20 links a double pointed tag and so forth. These chains were based on an ancient measure of the breadth of a furrow or plough strip. 1 Chain of a 100 links is 66 feet, the exact measure between the stumps of a cricket pitch. The invention of the steel tape in 1867 brought this method of measuring to a gradual close."
Event Date 11/3/2019
Author: David Kay

Context (Amendments / updates)
Catalogue card notes: '?Saxon'. However this is incorrect, as is the identification of the object as a pendant. It is in fact part of a Post Medieval surveyor's chain (see Analysis note) and its database entry has been re-entered as such.
Event Date 11/3/2019
Author: David Kay

Description (Physical description)
Marker tag from a set of Gunter's/surveyor's chains. It would have hung from the thirtieth link in the chain, i.e. marking 237.6 inches. The tag takes the form of a rough three-lobed lozenge with an ovoid suspension loop.
Event Date 11/3/2019
Author: David Kay