Rights Holder: Sussex Archaeological Society
CC License:
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Unique ID: SUSS-160236
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Fragment, comprising part of the head-plate and upper half of the bow, of a cast copper alloy Anglo-Saxon great square-headed brooch. The surviving part of the head-plate has a rectangular inner panel bearing scrolled decoration. The bow is divided longitudinally into two panels bearing zoomorphic ornament. The stumps of a pair of cast perforated lugs are present on the back of the head-plate; the iron spring/pin mechanism would have been attached to these. Some iron corrosion is present on the reverse around these lugs and probably represents the remains of the spring/pin. The head-plate inner panel is paralleled on a silver great square-headed brooch of Hines Group I from Dartford, Kent (Hines 1997, pl.2(a), 324), but also on a Kentish square-headed brooch from Bifrons (Leeds 1949, no.2) and two unclassified square-headed brooches from the Fens (Hines 1997, pl.95(a and b). John Hines comments that there does not seem to be any real counterpart to the zoomorphic ornament in the bow panels (Hines pers. comm.) but notes that "in a very broad way.this is a feature of Group I brooches.". In the absence of more fragments of this brooch, it is impossible to assign it to a group with any certainty, but overall a relationship with the brooches of Hines' Group I (the manufacture of which he dates to circa 500-520) seems probable.
Notes:
British Museum metal analysis proves this object to be made of copper alloy, with a trace of gold, but no mercury
Class:
great square headed
Sub class: Hines group I
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
Date from: Circa AD 500
Date to: Circa AD 520
Quantity: 1
Length: 35.71 mm
Width: 31.13 mm
Thickness: 6.29 mm
Weight: 22.6 g
Date(s) of discovery: Sunday 1st April 2007
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Grid reference source: GPS (from the finder)
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hines, J. | 1997 | A New Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Great Square-Headed Brooches | Woodbridge | The Boydell Press | |||
Leeds, E.T. | 1949 | A corpus of Early Anglo-Saxon Great Square-Headed Brooches | Oxford | Clarendon |