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BROOCH
Unique ID: BERK-451FB5
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Published 
A cast copper alloy Roman hippocampus brooch dating to the second century AD. The brooch is complete but is missing its enamel. A hippocampus is a seahorse-type creature, half horse half fish. The brooch depicts this creature with the head of a horse and a curled, scaled fish-like or mermid-like tail. On the front of the brooch there are four triangular or lozenge-shaped panels and four circular recesses, including one for the eye, that would have held coloured enamel but this is now all absent. On the reverse of the brooch is the intact but squashed double-lug pin mount, the copper alloy pin and the catchplate. Hippocampus brooches are not common finds and only one other complete example has been recorded on this database (LEIC-C88725), with two possible fragmentary brooches also recorded.
Find of note status
This has been noted as an interesting find by the recorder.
Class: zoomorphic (hippocampus)
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: ROMAN
Period from: ROMAN
Period to: ROMAN
Date from: Circa AD 100
Date to: Circa AD 199
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 27 mm
Height: 18 mm
Thickness: 3 mm
Weight: 4.4 g
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Sunday 3rd October 2010
Personal details
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Other reference numbers
Other reference: 2013.974
Materials and construction
Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Complete
Surface Treatment: Inlaid with enamel
Spatial metadata
Region: South East (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Oxfordshire (County)
District: West Oxfordshire (District)
To be known as: Woodstock
Spatial coordinates
Grid reference source: GPS (from the finder)
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
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