The find consists of 8 iron nails and an unidentifiable object that contains one further nail and is made of, or covered in, what appears to be fur. The nails range in length from 135 - 175 mm, and c. 10 - 20 mm in width at their widest point below the head. All 8 nails have a rose type head and taper to a broad point. These features suggest that the nails were hand wrought, rather than cut or wire, a method where each nail is manufactured individually by hand on a blacksmiths anvil. The invention of the slitting mill c. 1590 simplified this process by manufacturing iron rods from which nails could be cut, tapered and given a head. Between 1790 and 1820 this process began to be replaced by machine cut nails, before eventual replacement by wire nails in the late 19th century. These nails, therefore, likely date from before the mid-19th century. The level of preservation of iron objects in an intertidal environment also suggests that they are likely to be more recent than the 1590 development of the slitting mill, a date of mid-18th to mid-19th centuries is tentatively suggested. Images of the other object were sent to in-house finds secialist and animal bone specialist at Wessex Archaeology who both said it appeared to be animal skin that had been bundled up but could not tell what it was for. As the object has no readily diagnostic features, it remains unidentifiable. The find consists of 8 iron nails and an unidentifiable object that contains one further nail and is made of, or covered in, what appears to be fur. The nails range in length from 135 - 175 mm, and c. 10 - 20 mm in width at their widest point below the head. All 8 nails have a rose type head and taper to a broad point. These features suggest that the nails were hand wrought, rather than cut or wire, a method where each nail is manufactured individually by hand on a blacksmiths anvil. The invention of the slitting mill c. 1590 simplified this process by manufacturing iron rods from which nails could be cut, tapered and given a head. Between 1790 and 1820 this process began to be replaced by machine cut nails, before eventual replacement by wire nails in the late 19th century. These nails, therefore, likely date from before the mid-19th century. The level of preservation of iron objects in an intertidal environment also suggests that they are likely to be more recent than the 1590 development of the slitting mill, a date of mid-18th to mid-19th centuries is tentatively suggested. Images of the other object were sent to in-house finds secialist and animal bone specialist at Wessex Archaeology who both said it appeared to be animal skin that had been bundled up but could not tell what it was for. As the object has no readily diagnostic features, it remains unidentifiable. These objects were found during a walk on the River Thames near Rotherhithe. The finder notes that there were possible more than a 100 nails in total, spread over an area about 1.5 square metres. The objects have been deemed as non-wreck material by the Receiver of Wreck and therefore do not have a droit number. A RDF representation of MAS-O100189 2018-06-13T08:36:15+01:00 2020-03-30T14:25:50+01:00 MAS-O100189 MAS-O100189 GB en-GB The Trustees of the British Museum The Trustees of the British Museum 1 The period from for the object http://purl.org/NET/Claros/vocab#Thumbnail Attribute as courtesy of the British Museum A thumbnail image of MAS-O100189 MAS Created by MAS Iron Primary material of object Organic Secondary material of object Incomplete 20. Width 175. Length By Attribution 3.0 Attribute as courtesy of the British Museum A full resolution image of MAS-O100189 Classification of object