BROOCH

Roman cast copper alloy T-shaped brooch dating to the late first to early second century AD. The head has two cylindrical wings to hold the probably copper alloy axis bar for the hinged pin which would have moved in the slot on the underside of the head. Only part of this hinge remains. The wings are decorated at the ends with three transverse incised lines creating two raised collars between them. There is no evidence for a tab or loop at the head.

The bow has a D shaped cross section with a flat back. It projects at 90 degrees from the head, the upper part is strongly arched while the middle flattens towards the straight foot. The bow has moulded and incised decoration. The upper third has a central panel marked out by incised lines, at the top of the panel are three raised transverse lines and below these a trapezoid area (narrowing down the bow as the bow narrows). The trapezoid area is divided by a saltire and the lower section is decorated with close cross-hatching. Below the trapezoid is a small D shaped panel with an incised chevron on it. This entire central panel may be supposed to represent a face mask or animal head of some kind. Below this, about a third of the way down the bow, is a raised circular setting which may have held a glass bead within an incised crescent shape. Below this the remainder of the bow has three raised moulded parallel lines within a recessed panel running down the centre, the central line is a zig zag between two plain outer lines. These lines continue down to the foot which has a flat, plain, end.

The catchplate is plain and triangular, it starts about two fifths of the way up the bow with a plain straight end. The folded over catch is lost with some modern damage to the top.

It is now 48.6mm long, 35.2mm wide including the wing and 17.1mm thick; it weighs 14.70 grams.

T-shaped brooches are very variable in the decoration on their bows. Bayley and Butler (2004:167) suggest this type is mainly South Western in distribution and dates to the later first - early 2nd century AD (c75-150)