BROOCH

Late 4th century or early 5th century Roman cross bow brooch, possibly foreign made and imported. The brooch is made of copper alloy but has the remains of gilding on parts of the surface. The brooch has a hinge mechanism and has tubular wings which are octagonal in section. The front three of the wing facets are decorated with incised triangular notches and the top facet has circular swirls along it. There is evidence on the end of each wing that there were probably side knobs attached to these terminals, and the brooch has a small hole at the head where there may have been another knob. The brooch is intricately decorated on almost every facet but the decoration is different on both sides of the bow. On one side the decoration consists of pairs of 'S' shapes facing one another; on the other side this 's' design is repeated at the catch plate end of the bow but at the top half of the bow, towards the wings, the design changes and is made up of four intricate wheel shapes reminiscent of the those on early Iron Age coinage. The foot of the brooch is almost the same length as the bow, indicating a developed form. Hattatt contains some loose parallels for this object, it's general shape is similar to Hattatt's visual catalogue Fig. 229, No.104. A further parallel can be seen Hattatt's Brooches of Antiquity, p283, Fig.89 (Keller's type - K5) which shows the development of the Crossbow brooch. This example measures 83.8mm in length and 42.8mm in width across the wings. It weighs 77.57g.