BROOCH

Their origin is thought to be Pannonia, an area around the Danube and Rhine. The 9th Legion had been recruited from this area and then came over to England with the invasion of Britain, bringing the Kräftig-profilierte with them (Simpson; 1979; 330). The known examples from archaeological excavations are mostly from the East and South East of England (e.g. Colchester and Richborough). This has been thought to be because this is where the 9th Legion were based/passed through. They are known to have been at Longthorpe (45-66 AD), Lincoln (66-71 AD) and York, reaching there by 71 and staying until c.120. Twenty-eight of these brooches have been recorded on the PAS database prior to this one, from across the country, from Wales to Kent and Norfolk to Somerset. Due to the small number of this type found in the past, it was thought that they were never actually made in Britain and that they had been brought over to this country by soldiers from Pannonia

However this view is starting to change. An example of a Pannonian brooch was found during excavations at Wroxeter (2002; 103-4 fig 4.7 no 28). The authors of this report say-

"the basic message is that the Pannonian arrived early in small numbers and failed to travel as far as Hod Hill. Wroxeter is one of the few assured finds in advance of the Fosse Way ".

This brooch, along with the others on the database, starts to put into question the idea that the Pannonian type was not made in Britain. It is thought that the Kräftig type is the precursor of the British Trumpet brooch (Hattatt; 1982; 104-7) and alloy compositional studies have also suggested that some of the British examples could have been made here as copies of this style (Bayley and Butcher; 2004; 148). Variations would have occurred as the British brooch makers created their own versions of the Kräftig type and enough similarities can be seen between the trumpet and the Kräftig types to see how the transition to this new form took place.

Bibliography

Hattatt, R. 1982. Ancient and Romano-British Brooches. Dorset Publishing Company

Bayley, J and Butcher, S. 2004. Roman Brooches in Britain: A technological and typological study based on the Richborough Collection. The Society of Antiquaries London.

Simpson, G. 1979. Some British and Iberian pennanular brooches and other early types in the Rhineland and the Decumates Agri. Antiquaries Journal, 59. 319-42.

Webster, G., 2002. The Legionary Fortress at Wroxeter. Excavations by Graham Webster, 1955-1985. English Heritage Archaeological Report 19.