Rights Holder: Suffolk County Council Archaeology Service
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BROOCH
Unique ID: SF-733814
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation 
A copper alloy early medieval disc brooch. It is circular 23.85mm in diameter, 1mm in thickness and weighs 3.21g. The brooch is extremely worn, but a faint trace of a human head can be seen with a possible halo behind. A face can just be determined, and there are some angular depressions below, perhaps representing shoulders. To either side there is a cross with irregular rounded arms. One bears traces of red enamel and the other of blue/black enamel. On the reverse side close to the edges of the brooch are the remains of a catchplate, with one complete loop and one catch, with a cutaway to hold a pin. The edge of the brooch is worn with a small notch at this point. Two examples from Suffolk are illustrated in West (West 1998, fig.3,no.6,and p.6 from Barham; Fig.134, no.10, and p.104 from Wetheringsett). West refers to the example from Paderborn, of a 'heiligenfibel', which is similar though twice the size, depicting a saint with a halo and dating to the ninth century. The Wetheringsett example is 25mm in diameter and is also described as a 'saint's brooch'.
Notes:
Included in Weetch 2013 as catalogue no. 653.
Class:
saint
Sub class: Weetch type 19
Chronology
Broad period: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod from: Middle
Period from: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Subperiod to: Late
Period to: EARLY MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 800
Date to: Circa AD 900
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Thickness: 1 mm
Weight: 3.21 g
Diameter: 23.85 mm
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Friday 1st August 2008
Personal details
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Materials and construction
Spatial metadata
Region: Eastern (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Suffolk (County)
District: St. Edmundsbury (District)
To be known as: Ixworth
Spatial coordinates
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 10 metre square.
References cited
| Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrens, C. | 1978 | Sachsen und Angelsachsen: Ausstellung des Helms-Museums, Hamburgisches Museum fu?r Vor- und Fru?hgeschichte, 18. November 1978 bis 28. Februar 1979, Vero?ffentlichungen des Helms-Museums | Hamburg | Helms-Museum | |||
| West, S.E. | 1998 | A Corpus of Anglo-Saxon material from Suffolk | Ipswich | Suffolk County Council | fig.3,no.6; fig.134, no.10 |
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Timeline of associated dates
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