BROOCH

An incomplete and corroded Early-Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) copper-alloy disc brooch (c. 400-c. 600).
The plate would have originally been circular in plan. Most of the peripheral edge and the pin are missing.
At the front there is a central ring-and-dot motif. This consists of a central pit (the dot) and a ring with two concentric rings further towards the edge. Close to the edge there is a border of ten (possibly eleven) fairly equally spaced ring-and-dot motifs. The rear face is flat except for the remains of a single pin-lug and catch-plate.
This brooch is green and corroded overall. At the front faint traces of tinning can be seen under magnification. A fleck of iron staining is present close to the pin lug. There is no evidence for melting or burning.

Height: 29.8mm; width: 28.6mm; thickness: 3.0mm; thickness including catch-plate: 6.8mm. Weight: 7.89g.

MacGregor, A and Bolick, E. 1993. A Summary Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon Collections in the Ashmolean Museum. British Archaeological Reports (British Series) 230.

MacGregor and Bolick comment that: 'Almost all the decoration found on these brooches is inscribed or stamped on the surface after casting; the only exceptions may be the broad concentric grooves found on a few brooches. Incised concentric circles and ring-and-dot motifs account for most of the patterns encountered, frequently complemented by concentric patterns of smaller punch marks - annulets, crescents (usually produced with an annulet stamp held at an angle), triangles, and V- or S-stamps. A central dot forms a common feature, no doubt representing the axis around which a scriber has been rotated; in some instances the dot is markedly deep and often the brooch is completely perforated at the centre. Not infrequently the periphery of the brooch is notched. Tinning is common on these brooches (especially the more highly-decorated examples), but gilding is not encountered, adding to the impression that they occupy a position complementary to that of the saucer and applied brooches of the more affluent sections of Saxon society...There are no obvious Continental prototypes for these brooches, which seem to have been an insular Anglo-Saxon development. As a whole the type tends to occur south of a line from the Severn to the Wash. Within this region the upper Thames Valley is particularly productive and may have formed a major production centre. The date range spans the fifth and sixth centuries (most of them occupying the median hundred years or so), with little evidence for formal development within that period' (MacGregor & Bolick 1993: 57).