BROOCH

An incomplete fragment from the head and upper bow of a cast copper alloy Roman trumpet brooch dating from AD 75 - 175. The fragment of the brooch is distorted with the bow being further bent and distorted - probably deliberately in antiquity. The head of the brooch is oval in plan. The reverse of it is divided by a vertical rectangular bar which is pierced at the mid-point. It is through this hole that the spring / pin would have been fixed. Both the pin and spring are lost. The head of brooch tapers from a flared upper bow and then expands with a thickened ridge below which three moulded bands of decoration are present. The bow is brooch is broken across the lower bow. The reverse of the brooch is flattened apart from the remains of the three moulded bands. The catchplate, lower bow and foot are all lost. The upper bow is heavily decorated with both cast and incised designs. Either side of the head are single well modelled and proportioned debased triskele like whorls, each of the three arms terminates in a C shaped scroll and the junction of the arms has a hollow lozenge / diamond shaped panel. The whorls are deeply incised and it is possible that a coloured glass or enamel was inset within the design. Below these whorls set on the hump of the bow is a lozenge shaped boss which is divided vertically flanking this are two lentoid raised panels or leaf shapes. The upper and lower of the transverse bands are plain whilst the middle one is faceted and has a beaded collar both above and below. The lower bow - at the point of the break - is triangular and it is likely that the central ridge and flanking sides would all be decorated with designs and / or further enamel work. The brooch is of a dark-mid green colour with an even thick but abraded patina which covers all surfaces. A number of similar brooches of this type can be seen in Richard Hattatt's (2000) Visual Catalogue of Ancient Brooches; page 326-328. All the brooches in this section are dated to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Parallels can also be found on the database discovered in Myddle and Broughton, Shropshire (HESH-A07EB4) and Worfield, Shropshire (HESH-128446). McKreath (2011) also illustrates a similarly triskelle decorated trumpet brooch (Vol II p 83 / plate 80 No 4962) which has no provenance.

The brooch fragment measures 30.4mm in length, 10.66mm width (across the circular head of the brooch), 7.91mm thick (across the central moulding), and weighs 8.2 grams.