BROOCH

The fan tail foot and upper part of the lower plate of a Aesica variant dating to the 1st to 2nd century AD. The upper bow and head and the pin are missing.

The remaining section of the body is broadly hexagonal. It has a cut off straight top where it abutted or joined the head, this is now worn and it is not clear if it is broken. The sides are triangular with concave sides, expanding into a point to each side, closer to the base than the top, the point is extended into a thickened, rounded knop. The base is also straight and thickens slightly where it joins the trapezoid tail. In the lowere half of this upper part is an irregular cental hole which would have held the rivet at the end of the bow.

The foot is broadly trapezoid, with the side edges turned into raised ribs that are convex at the front and flat on the back and project slightly into a knop at the base. Down the cnetre of the foot run three incised parallel lines onw formed of a series of small punched dots, the other two joined by multiple cross lines. The back of the foot is plain, but has contains the remains of the now incomplete catchplate running down the centre that is 0.95mm thick and 13.97mm in length.

Hattatt illustrates several generally similar feet on aesica type brooches (2001:310) particularly no.799 from Wiltshire which has ribs running down the centre of the foot as well. Bayley and Butcher (2004:150-151) group these types together as 'Hook Norton and related types' and suggest a mid first century date for all of them.

The brooch is 31.14mm long, with a maximum width of 18.84mm, a thickness of 1.64mm and a weight of 7.33g