BROOCH

A copper alloy Nertomarus type Langton Down brooch dating to the first century AD. The head of the brooch has been flattened but originally comprised hollow semi-circular wings with a central cast motif of an inverted triangle. The triangle itself is decorated with three moulded dots. Either side of the triangle is a plain, diagonal decorative ridge. Where the head of the brooch meets the top of the bow, there is a transverse ridge. The bow itself is D shaped in section and tapers towards the foot, which is broken. It is 13mm wide at its top, 6mm wide at its base.The brooch patina is almost black,possibly due to fire damage.

Bayley and Butcher (2004, pp 150) note that this subdivision of the Langton Down brooch type is rather scarce in Britain and only two other examples, NMS-A54510 and WILT-E23281 have been recorded on the PAS database to date. Most examples are known from eastern France and western Switzerland where they date to the first half of the 1st century. The four British examples listed by Bayley and Butcher (2004) were recovered from pre-75AD contexts.