BROOCH

An incomplete copper-alloy Roman plate brooch of the early symmetrical type (AD 70-140), missing the spring mechanism, the foot with catch-plate and the pin.

The brooch is 27.3mm in surviving length and max. 12.2mm wide. It weighs 4.1grams. It is curious in that on the reverse it has a single pierced lug, which would have been sprung.

The surviving terminal protrudes centrally from the bow, with the pierced lug below. It is thin and rectangular in cross-section, decorated with an engraved transverse groove towards its tip. The terminal is 6.9mm in length and 2.9mm max width.

The central 'bow' is c. 7.0mm wide before it narrows to at the surviving end to the terminal. Travelling in the other direction it widens gradually to a central section, 12.2mm wide and 2.6mm thick. This central section is in the same plane as the terminal. The bow rises at an angle of forty-five degrees. This angular upper surface is more softened underneath where the bow is curved in profile. The upper surfaces of the angled sections of the bow are decorated with four transverse grooves. The central element is decorated with another four transverse grooves, less deeply engraved, and reminiscent of Roman numerals. They sit within a low relief border, emphasised by engraved lines in the longitudinal plane. The edges of the bow are stepped down and decorated with triangular projections running along both edges for the bows surviving length, giving a saw tooth effect. The reverse is undecorated and pitted.

As noted, the remainder of the bow, the foot/terminal and the catch-plate are missing. This example has been twisted slightly as a result of old damage.

The brooch can be paralleled with an example recovered from Dorchester, Dorset, recorded by Hattatt (1989, 148; no. 1602), which differs from this example by having eight small enamelled circular cells on the mid-bow. Similar examples have been recorded from Caerleon (Brewer 1986, 170; no. 7) and Caerwent Temple (unpublished) . Bayley and Butcher (2004:127 and 171, no.357, 358 and 362) also publish examples from Richborough and suggest these are an early form of equal ended brooch, probably imported and of continental origin and, while examples are known in deposits until the mid-2nd century, such as at Caerleon, they are probably mainly Flavian in date.