Rights Holder: Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
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Unique ID: WILT-809E32
Object type certainty: Certain
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status: Published
A fragment of silver penannular brooch, consisting of about one-quarter of the frame with one terminal. It measures 21.11mm in curved length and weighs 0.92g. The fragment is a maximum of 4.27mm wide and 1.98mm thick, at the terminal. The brooch would originally have been about 30mm in diameter.
The frame is undecorated, has a relatively fresh break and measures 1.81mm in cross-section diameter at the break. It widens into the zoomorphic terminal which is 7.88mm long; the terminal is neatly made, and is flat with a rectilinear end. The two corners of this end are cut off by very slightly curved oblique grooves which continue down the sides of the terminal (although not the end) to form 'ears'. Above these, the centre of the terminal is shaped into a drop shape, with a further pair of grooves running up from the sides of the terminal onto the top, forming the pointed end of the drop as well as a saltire cross between a tiny pair of projecting stylised 'eyes'. Beyond these is the start of the frame, which is decorated with a V-shape in very low relief and perhaps with a slight defining groove. The resulting tongue-shaped moulding represents a snout. The reverse of the terminal is undecorated.
Silver penannular brooches of this type (Fowler F/Kilbride-Jones's 'pseudo-zoomorphic' type) are rare. Anna Booth (University of Leicester) has kindly provided the following assessment of the type's chronology:
"This is an example of a Fowler Type F penannular brooch, which she believed developed in the 4th century AD (Fowler 1963, 103). An earlier, 2nd-century date for this type has been suggested by Kilbride-Jones (1935, 383-4; 1980, 4); evidence to support his theory remains limited, although the date range may perhaps be pushed back into the 3rd century. An example found in excavations at Caersws, Powys was dated by Wheeler (1923) to pre-3rd century AD, but only on the basis that there was little evidence for occupation on the site after this date. More convincingly, an example from Bays Meadow, Droitwich was found in a rubbish pit along with twelve 3rd-century coins (Gelling 1959, 16).
The later end of the type's date range is equally uncertain. A few have been found at Anglo-Saxon cemetery sites, including Barrington, Cambridgeshire (Malim and Hines 1998, 204-5; MacGregor and Bolick 1993, no. 11.5), Nassington (Leeds and Atkinson, 1944) and in a post-500 AD grave at Bifrons (Godfrey-Faussett, 1876). However, Fowler (1963, 103) pointed out that the latter two were both well worn when deposited and so may have already been in use for some time.
There have been numerous, often conflicting, studies of this group of penannulars (e.g. Fowler, 1961, 1963; Savory 1956; Kilbride-Jones, 1935, 1980), all of which have drawn attention to the complex nature of their development, which appears to have been subject to much regional variation."
A date-range of 3rd to 7th century therefore seems appropriate for this brooch fragment.
Anna has also provided a discussion of the brooch's type: "Although the small size of this brooch (c. 30 mm) might appear to put it into Fowler's type E, the size and style of the terminals seem to fit much better into the type F. Fowler's typology was based primarily on terminal design rather than size, and the type Fs (which can vary in size) are more consistently like the present example, i.e. expanded with all the zoomorphic detail present. Type Es are more consistently small in size but are more varied in design, usually being narrower and less zoomorphic and sometimes with a residual line along the sides revealing their ancestry in the folded-back form of terminal."
Notes:
This object fulfils the stipulations of the Treasure Act (1996) in that it is more than 300 years old and has a precious metal content exceeding 10%.
TVC Valuation 09/03/2012: £15
Class: Penannular
Current location of find: Wiltshire Heritage Museum
Subsequent action after recording: Acquired by museum after being declared Treasure
Treasure case tracking number: 2011T301
Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Early
Period from: ROMAN
Subperiod to: Early
Period to: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 200
Date to: Circa AD 700
Quantity: 1
Length: 21.11 mm
Width: 4.27 mm
Thickness: 1.98 mm
Weight: 0.92 g
Date(s) of discovery: Tuesday 1st February 2011
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Treasure case number: 2011T301
Grid reference source: Centred on field
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 10 metre square.
No references cited so far.