BROOCH

An incomplete Roman Hod Hill brooch of first century AD date. Short tubular wings give the fragment the maximum width of 17.0mm. The wings have a diameter of 3.1mm and would orginally have held an axis bar. A slot, which accounts for 1.1mm of the width measurement, is positioned at the centre of the wings and is the location where the pin, now missing, would have emerged.

The metal before the wings narrows to 10.3mm before expanding again to the maximum width of the bow, which is 12.3mm. At this point the bow has a thickness of 3.0mm. Traces of a thin white metal coating are present on the upper surface of the brooch between the wings and top of the bow. It is uncertain whether this coating originally covered all of the upper surface or not. The bow tapers down to a width of 8.4mm and thickness of 2.7mm where a transverse worn break has occurred. The bow has a very flattened 'D' shape to oval cross-section, the reverse being flatter. The upper surface of the bow is decorated with lateral lines, alternating four raised ribs and three grooves. It is uncertain whether the three grooves were originally filled with another substance, such as ennamel, however the fact that the proximal end of the grooves are open may suggest not. This linear decorative zone seems to have had a transverse feature to demarkate the a zonal change at the point where the, now worn, break occurred. A perforation, length 3.8mm x width 0.8mm, has occurred within one of the grooves. It is uncertain whether this is the result of mis-casting during manufacture or later damage.

The lower portion of the brooch is missing. This fragment weighs 3.52g, and has a length of 26.8mm.