BROOCH

A Roman copper alloy hinged initial T-shaped brooch, probably dating to c. AD 50-100. Only the wings and bow survive, with the foot, catch plate and pin all missing. At the head of the bow is a cylindrical wing casing, 19.5mm wide and 5.0mm in diameter, due to damage the left half of the wing case is angled upwards. There is a central slot through the head to allow for a hinged pin, now missing, copper alloy corrosion suggesting a axis bar of that metal encased within. The wings are undecorated apart from a pair of thickly incised lines at each tip on the front half of the case only, here as elsewhere on the brooch, there are traces of a white metal coating.

The bow expands below the wing casing, and has similarly been bent out of line. It initially has a D-shaped cross section, 7.4mm wide by 3.5mm thick, and tapers to an old break, 3.1mm wide. The thickness of the bow also tapers until the mid-point, where the bow is 3.1mm thick, but below this point expands to become oval in cross section and 3.5mm thick by the break. The bow is decorated in relief, with three longitudinally aligned recessed grooves running between the head and the mid point of the bow. These create 4 ridges, with further small transverse incisions into the central two creating the impression of corded decoration. On the mid-point below these vertical ridges are a pair of transverse incised lines.

Length: 33.6mm, Weight: 5.16g.

The form and decoration of this brooch appears to be fairly typical of "initial" T-shaped brooches (Bayley & Butcher 2004: 158, esp. no 133), a group concentrated in the South West and which appear to have a Flavian era date range (ibid: 159).