BROOCH

Roman copper alloy bow brooch of Wroxeter type and of early to mid 2nd century AD date

The brooch is near-complete, missing the pin but has a distorted bow (with a distorted length of 61.8mm, a depth of 22.2mm and a weight of 19.8g). The spring remains in place and was repaired with a loop of wire inserted between the damaged spring coils. An S-shaped twist of the inserted wire abuts the base of the head to tension the single spring coil. The spring is wound around a copper alloy axis bar and secured between perforated lateral lugs. The trumpet-derivative head is D-shaped (with a length of 14.6mm and a width of 16.7mm) and is decorated with an incised double-chevron above the spring and with a knurled rib around the edge. There was no integral loop on the head but it possible that the axis bar formed a swivelling chain loop. The front of the head is flat and is not decorated, with the bow emerging from the centre. The upper bow is of D-shaped section (8.4mm wide and 4.8mm thick), with straight, near-parallel sides as for as the top of the leg. The upper bow has a deep curve and is decorated with rectangular cells holding remnant traces of enamel. The enamel would have been rectangles of alternating colours without separating bars but only the blue enamel now survives. At the base of the enamelled cells is a circular aperture, widest at the front (with a diameter of 4.3mm) intended to hold a decorative, riveted stud, now lost. The leg is convex across its length with an inward curvature and is of triangular section, with straight sides gradually converging towards the foot. There is the suggestion of incised line decoration flanking the central ridge but the detail has been lost. The foot is of disc form with ribbed and borders and is convex between. The catch-plate his arced on its edge and the rear of the catch is enhanced with double horizontal lines at the apex and with the suggestion of double diagonals down the rear of the catch, now worn. The surface has a pale-green patina.

The brooch can be paralleled with two examples recorded by Hattatt, one found in Wiltshire (Hattatt, 1987, p 146, no. 984)[1] and the other from Eye in Suffolk (Hattatt, 1989, p 96, no. 1538)[2]. The Wiltshire brooch better parallels the head and upper bow with a separate decorative stud, while the concave leg is paralleled on the Suffolk brooch.

[1] Hattatt, R.; 1987, Brooches of Antiquity

[2] Hattatt, R.; 1989, Ancient Brooches and other Artefacts