BROOCH

Description: Fragment of a small square-headed (or Kentish) square-headed brooch made from gilded silver. Part of the bow and part of the headplate survive; the breaks vary a little, but in general are neither particularly fresh nor particularly old.

The central panel of the headplate is decorated with a small rectangular gilded panel consisting of a ridged frame and three surviving short vertical ridges. This is surrounded to its single surviving (left-hand) side by a broad ungilded frame decorated with tiny transverse ribbing; this frame turns at the junction of bow and headplate and runs outwards along the base of the headplate before being broken off short. A minute stub of a similar frame survives to the other side of the headplate. There was originally another gilded panel to the left, but only one gilded sloping edge survives. On the reverse of the broad frame is a broken pin bar lug, presumably (from its off-centre placing) one of an original two.

The side edges of the bow are original. It has a central flat roundel in the centre, and the surviving upper curve of the bow is decorated with concentric curved grooves, most or all of which retain gilding. The junction of the bow and the roundel was originally marked with pairs of grooves running radially, but these are now almost entirely worn away.

The centre of the roundel has a bold relief gilded design which is difficult to reconstruct. The surviving portion appears to be a flat-topped curving ridge with a blunt end. It is hard to tell, because of the wear, whether the brooch was originally entirely or just partially gilded.

The reverse is smooth, hollow and both ungilded and undecorated; the original edges are smoothly curved.

Dimensions: The fragment is a maximum of 20.4mm in surviving width and is approximately 26.5mm long. It is approximately 16.5mm thick from the top of the bow to the back of the pin bar lug, and weighs 7.0g.

Discussion: The roundel on the bow with concentric grooves above and below is paralleled on several small square-headed brooches, particularly the relatively large and showy versions such as Bifrons 41 (Hawkes 2000, fig. 19), Dover 20 (Evison 1987, fig. 12.6 and 12.8), and Stowting 2 and 9, Goldstone Cop Ash 1 and Gilton 48 (Leigh 1980, pls. 21, 24 and 54).

The ribbed central panel to the headplate is paralleled on many small square-headed brooches, and the transversely ribbed frame can also be found on several, e.g. Finglesham D3 (Chadwick 1958, fig. 9b). The frame's shape, running outwards along the base of the headplate rather than turning inwards to form a rectangular shape, is more unusual. It is paralleled to some extent on the brooches from Chessell Down graves 22 and 40 (Leigh 1980, pls. 5 and 41; Arnold 1980, figs. 6 and 9) and a brooch from Engers in Germany (Leigh 1980, pl. 63).

Date: This fragment cannot be dated any more closely than the general date-bracket for small square-headed brooches, which Leigh puts at c. 480-c. 560 (1980, 477-83, quoted in Suzuki 2008, 288).