BROOCH

Incomplete copper-alloy cruciform brooch, now damaged and bent at the top of the bow so that the headplate is approximately at right angles to the bow. The foot is missing, with a relatively fresh break at the base of two mouldings across the foot. The knob on the top of the head plate was integrally cast with the brooch and remains in place; it has a flat-backed D-shaped cross-section, and a deep groove across it separating a rounded upper half from a lower moulding. The lower moulding has the remains of one or two extremely worn grooves along it, just visible at either end but completely worn away in the centre.

The two lateral knobs were made separately and both are now missing. It is likely that brooch knob FAKL-50CA07 (see below) came from this brooch.

The headplate has a roughly square central panel and trapezoidal flared wings with rounded corners, The headplate is very worn and no remains of any stamped decoration can be seen. On the reverse is a single D-shaped pierced lug to hold the pin bar lug. The piercing is blocked with iron corrosion and there is iron staining extending in patches to the edges of the headplate.

There are tears into the bottom of the headplate on both sides of the bow resulting from the bending of the brooch. It is difficult to tell when this occurred, but it was clearly when the metal was still flexible enough to bend.

The bow is again very worn. It has a narrow flat panel to top and bottom, decorated with perhaps three grooves on the upper flat panel and two grooves above a pair of edge nicks on the lower flat panel. Between, the bow has a flat centre and sloping sides, and no decoration. The reverse is hollowed and some iron staining is present.

Below the bow is a flat panel with a pair of lappets in the form of eagles' heads, with large lentoid eyes, three tiny grooves across the head behind the eyes, and circular holes forming the void around which the very thin beaks curve. The quality of design here is not particularly good. Between the lappets, the tapering flat panel is decorated with a central pair of transverse grooves. The foot continues with the pair of bold transverse mouldings above the break.

Length 71.2mm; Width 47.5mm; Height 9.0mm; Mass 40.91g.

This brooch can be placed in Åberg's Group IV (Åberg 1926), and Mortimer's Type D5 (zoomorphic lappets). It is similar to the D5 example from Grave 57 at nearby Sewerby (Hirst 1985). Mortimer dates this type approximately to the mid fifth to mid sixth century (1990, 177).

From a group of early Anglo-Saxon objects found together in a small area. The finder reported that this object was found 20 feet away from the main group of objects, but FAKL-50CA07, which is likely to be a knob from this brooch, was found within the main area and it likely that the brooch has been dragged by the plough, a suggestion supported by its bent condition.