BROOCH

An Iron Age/Roman copper alloy brooch fragment, dating to circa 43 BC - AD 75.

This brooch is a simple one-piece brooch of La Tene III type and Nauheim derivative. The head and spring with pin are missing with the bow and catchplate intact. The main body of the brooch is lentoid in form, this then narrows before expanding to a rectangular catchplate. The body of the brooch is decorated on the front with two longitudinal grooves flanking each edge. The reverse of the bow is plain and flat. The object has a mid-green coloured patina with a pitted surface.

Hattatt (2000) illustrates similar brooches on page 290, most notably no. 239 which are dated to 1^st century BC/AD. Mackreth (2011) illustrates a similar brooch on Plate 7, which are classified due to the decoration of punch marks as a border or down the middle of the bow with plain grooves as a border. It could be that this example had decoration on the front which is now lost to abrasion in the plough soil. There are other La Tene III brooches recorded on the PAS database, more complete examples can be seen recorded from Lincolnshire (LVPL-B69D360 and Hampshire (HAMP-3DEAC3).

The brooch fragment measures 40.43 mm long and 9.43 mm wide across the bow and 3.12 mm thickness. It weighs 4.7 grams.

Hattatt, R., (2000) A Visual Catalogue of Richard Hattatt's Ancient Brooches Oxford : Oxbow Books.

Mackreth, D.F., (2011) Brooches in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain Oxford, Oxbow Books.