BROOCH

Incomplete cast copper alloy one-piece Colchester type bow brooch, missing the spring, the pin and the catch-plate (with a width of 9 mm, a length of 90 mm, a thickness of 4 mm and a weight of 5.65 g). The spring was positioned behind the wings and only the stubs of the spring at the back of the head and the forward-projecting claw to tension the chord are now present. The stubs of the wings are evident either side of the head. The bow projects outwards from the head before turning sharply in an arch and curving back on itself towards the foot, as it is now bent in half. The bow is rectangular in section at the head (with a width of 5 mm and a thickness of 4 mm) and becomes more oval in section, with a diameter of 4 mm and gradually converging to the pointed foot. The bow above the foot is slightly wider and is square in section, having a width of 4.6 mm, because the edge of the catchplate survives as a slight flange. There is not much decoration discernible on the bow, but there are ridges and recesses running down its length. The brooch has areas of pale green and copper-coloured corrosion.

It has the classic head features of a Colchester brooch and the length seems to correspond with this type. Unfortunately the real distinguishing features are absent but the curve of the bow is unclear as it has been bent back on itself and the foot widens towards the catchplate, but this has all corroded away so that the type cannot be determined.

Mackreth (2011) illustrates a similar example on page 25, pl. 22, no.211, which is dated to the Late Iron Age.

See PUBLIC-D0DC42 on the database for a similar brooch from the Vale of Glamorgan, which is dated to the 1st century AD.

Colchester brooches of this type are generally dated from c.AD 25-60 (Worrell, Iron Age Brooches 2, 2011, p.21).