BROOCH

An incomplete copper alloy Roman (AD 75-175) Trumpet-headed brooch, consisting of the trumpet head (missing its head-loop) and the upper bow, while missing most of the pin shank. The pin has corroded in place and is immoveable, currently extending upwards above the head of the brooch. The brooch measures 32.61mm in length, 34.43mm inclusive of the pin. It weighs 7.54g.
The plate-head is triangular in shape with the stump of a loop projecting at the apex. It measures 16.21mm wide. To the reverse the head is solid with a tubular housing running along the straight edge and extending slightly beyond the parameters of the head's width at 19.55mm wide. Iron corrosion can be seen at one open end and at the centre around the triangular pin-head.
The bow curves outwards and downwards from the bottom of the head and is C-shaped in cross-section, being hollow to the reverse. It terminates just below the central button (a transverse rib with a thinner rib to either side, and 9.78mm wide) and has a worn transverse moulding above and below. It measures 7.72mm wide at the (old) break.
In "Roman Brooches in Britain: A Technological and Typological Study based on the Richborough Collection", Bayley and Butcher state that trumpet-headed brooches, "...are the most original products of the British brooch industry in the Roman period" (2004, p160). The distinctive head is thought to derive from some pre-Roman Aylesford brooches (ibid.). In her "Roman Brooch Timeline", Worrell (2007) dates trumpet brooches to AD 75-175.