ASSEMBLAGE

Early Anglo-Saxon silver-gilt great square headed brooch fragments, silver wrist clasp, silver belt stud and associated finds (2003 T375)

Date: First half of the sixth century

Description: 1) Gilded silver brooch fragments (7). The fragments are from a great square-headed brooch and are as follows. A) Two joining fragments from the upper frame of the head plate approaching the top right (facing) corner. The fragments show a panelled design within borders filled with a running zig-zag, made with a triangular punch, whose impressions are inlaid with niello. Two panels survive, one filled with a pair of Style I helmeted heads, facing outwards into the upper border, the second with an abstract face, also facing outwards, composed of eyes with well defined cheek bones surmounted by strong arched brows which join and run down the face to form a nose and curling moustache. B) Four joining fragments consisting of the bow of the brooch and part of the decorative panel immediately above it, the lower right and left hand corners of the head-plate and the left hand shoulder of the footplate. The bow is short with heavy median and border ribbing. Touching the top of the median rib is the niello filled frame of a small rectangular panel. Only two thirds of this remain and is filled with a raised square with a double banded collar enclosing an incised saltire cross. This is separated from a highly stylised Style I face by a thin vertical bar. The two corners of the head-plate each carry part of the head-plate's zig-zag border and a fragment of the overall Style I design that fills the head plate and surrounds the small panel above the bow. This is too fragmentary to interpret. Touching the border on each fragment is a square divided by a sunken saltire cross into a pyramidal depression within an ribbed border. Above this is a Style I helmeted head matching those on the upper border. The fourth fragment is decorated with a strong Style I head wearing a form of head-dress suggesting curved horns. To the left of this head, which lies beneath the median rib of the bow, is a complex design that fills the shoulder. This consists of a downward facing Style I helmeted animal head with flaring open jaws, defined by a single groove and a beady eye. The neck, like the head-plate, is outlined by a niello-filled zig-zag border. Filling the body of the neck is a long bodied beast with a simple head and long thin curving jaws. The body terminates in a horizontal bar, beneath which springs a curving beak. C) A fragment from the lower part of the foot plate with a curving niello-filled border and part of an unintelligible mixture of Style I elements including part of a face with a chubby cheek, leg elements and a fragment of what may be a triangular motif with a triple banded border enclosing a sunken triangular core.

2) Silver spiral wrist-clasp: one half, hooked, of a well made Class A spiral wrist clasp pair.

3) Silver shoe-shaped belt stud, the sunken field decorated with ring and dot ornament, a belt or bridle fitting.

4) Gilded silver fragment perhaps from the arm or foot of a miniature square-headed brooch. The fragment is small with traces of a band of niello inlaid zig-zag border above which the fragment flares.

5) Gilded copper-alloy fragment of unknown function. The object is largely complete and consists of a trapezoidal plate with gilded edges, the upper edge of which rises to form a semi-circular collar. The lower margin has two scallops cut in it and the edges of these are gilded, suggesting Style I eye openings.

6) Gilded copper-alloy fragment from the foot of a square-headed brooch. The fragment has a rounded terminal from which rises a bold central midrib flanked by a pair of finely cast ribs within a thicker border. One side supports a loop or lug. The terminal is not gilt, unlike the remainder of the fragment and it is probable that it was covered by a silver sheet appliqué.

Discussion: The finds which include both male and female equipment, could come from disturbed graves or, because of their fragmentary nature, be part of a metalsmith's scrap ready for melting down. The great square-headed brooch fragments (1) are an exceptional find and the brooch, when complete, would have been amongst the most outstanding of the great square headed brooch series (John Hines, 'A New Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Great Square-Headed Brooches', London,1997). The fragments of the brooch, with its beautifully executed Style I ornament, suggest that it belongs to Hines group II, falling early in the series, perhaps manufactured in the first decades of the sixth century. It can be compared to the brooch from grave 159, Sarre, Kent, and to a similar brooch of Anglo-Saxon origin found at Herpes, France (Hines, op cit. pl. 10b and 10a, pp. 228-9).

The brooch terminal (6) belongs to Hines group VI and can be compared to examples from Kenninghall, Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds (Hines op. cit. pls. 53a, 57a and 58b). The group is large and overall dates from the second half of the sixth century. Unfortunately, not enough of the brooch survives to suggest to which of three sub-groups it belongs.

The spiral wrist-clasp (2) belongs to Hines Class A (John Hines, 'The Scandinavian Character of Anglo-Saxon England in the pre Viking Period', BAR British Series 124, Oxford, 1984, List 2.2, p. 319; pp. 37-48 and 68-70, fig. 2.5), a group whose use dates from the late fifth/early sixth centuries date and whose distribution lies predominantly in the Anglian regions of early Anglo-Saxon England. Similar examples illustrated by Hines come from eg, Kenninghall, Norfolk and, Holywell Row, Suffolk, grave 17 (op. cit. fig. 2.2 and fig. 2.5; see also Stanley West 'A corpus of Anglo-Saxon Material from Suffolk, East Anglian Archaeology 24, Ipswixh 1998, p. 31, fig. 38, 3.1 and 3.2, Grave 33,Eriswell).

The shoe-shaped stud (3) is an unusual find in an Anglian context. Such studs are often found in groups of two or three and are generally associated with a matching belt buckle. They have close affinities with near continental belt fittings and are more commonly found in south-east England. They date from the mid to late sixth century. A silver plated stud similar to this example, also with stamped ornament, was found in a phase 2 grave (no. 96a; AD 525-75) in the Buckland, Dover, cemetery (Vera Evison, 'The Buckland Anglo-Saxon Cemetery', London 1987, text fig. 25 and fig. 45.3).