Rights Holder: West Yorkshire Archaeology Service
CC License:
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Unique ID: SWYOR-863735
Object type certainty: Certain
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status: Published
Incomplete early Anglo-Saxon copper-alloy great square-headed brooch dating from the early to mid 6th century. The head and bow of the brooch survive with traces of gilding but the foot plate is missing. The headplate is rectangular, and decorated with an inner panel of complex but unclear chip-carved decoration, perhaps in Style I. The headplate frame is separated from the inner panel by an undecorated ridge which runs right to the edge of the headplate, also delimiting the corners. The frame is decorated with relief circles, four across the top and three on either side. The corners are filled with a human mask of nose and eyes. On the reverse of the head are the remains of a worn double pin bar lug through which the pin bar would have been fitted.
The bow has a raised central rib with a panel of relief decoration on either side. Again the precise motif is unclear, but may have consisted merely of transverse ribbing. The stub of footplate that survives has traces of chip-carved decoration and of gilding.
The brooch weighs 12.58g and measures 36.4mm in length, 27.1mm in width and 11.1mm in thickness.
The relief circles in the headplate frame are reminiscent of the decorative circular perforations in the headplate frames of Hines Group XIII brooches. Two of these, from Little Wilbraham 158 and from Ruskington, also have masks in the corners (Hines 1997, pls. 42b and 43a). Group XIII brooches also have Style I in their headplate central panels, but they do not have relief decoration on the bow.
Class: great square headed
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Early
Period from: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod to: Early
Period to: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Ascribed Culture:
Anglo-Saxon style
Date from: Circa AD 500
Date to: Circa AD 570
Quantity: 1
Length: 34.4 mm
Width: 27.1 mm
Thickness: 11.1 mm
Weight: 12.58 g
Date(s) of discovery: Thursday 2nd March 2006
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Primary material: Copper alloy
Completeness: Incomplete
Surface Treatment: Gilded
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
No references cited so far.