AND IN MY POUCH

We cannot be certain that graves from the period are a truly accurate representation of what a person—poor or posh—would have kept in his pouch, but they are for the most part the only indication of what was held important, since there are no literary or graphic representations except for most pouches or bags. In “The Great Pouch Debate,” Andy McVie, et. al., notes that common objects found in pouches in graves included:

 Needles and pins
Shears
Combs
 Coins
 Flint and Strike-a-Lights
 Honestones
 Weights (it is uncertain these were for practical use or were keepsakes of some sort)
 Keepsakes or lucky charms such as quartz pebbles, horse teeth, broken Roman bracelets, teeth (the citation doers no say whether these are human or animal) and boars' tusks

This list should not be considered exhaustive, and bags might contain such items as pan pipes and simple tools such as spindle whorls.

In addition, gold and jewelry—for example gold and bead necklaces for women and golden rings and arm bands for men—was worn on the person and would not have probably been included in the bags. Scissors, shears, chatelaines and the such was often suspended for easy access. And knives—with the possible exception of fold knives—which were early versions of pocket knives–were generally kept in external sheathes suspended from belts, brooches or even the neck.