BROOCH

Roman copper alloy bow brooch of Trumpet type and 1^st or 2^nd century AD

The brooch is fragmentary, represented by the head and upper bow only (with a surviving length of 23.5mm, a surviving depth of 9.3mm and a weight of 4.8g). The missing spring was secured around a central lug with a perforation to accommodate the axis bar. There is a notch at the base of the lug to tension the chord and the top of the lug is truncated and possibly continued to form a spike to hold a swivelling chain loop. There is no evidence for an integral chain-loop at the head. The head was oval, now slightly damaged (17.9mm long and 14.5mm high) and has a plate surrounding the smaller upper bow. The rear of the head is dished. The bow is of D-shaped section at the head (15.2mm wide and 10.0mm high). The top of the bow is decorated with a spiral scroll on each side, which continue on to the front of the bow to form linear ribs. In-between these two ribs are another two ribs, which appear to be diverging towards the break. No other decoration is evident on the short area of bow surviving. The bow is of D-shaped section at the break (7.1mm wide and 4.3mm thick). There is the suggestion of a tinned or silvered surface; otherwise the surface has a dark-green patina with areas of pale-green corrosion.