BROOCH

An incomplete Roman copper alloy Colchester Derivative Polden Hill type brooch, probably dating to c. AD 80-150. Only the head of the brooch and a small section of the upper bow survive.

The wings of the bow survive complete, 25.1mm wide, with a semi-cylindral cross section, terminating in a perforated wing cap at either end. These are sub-circular, 6.4mm tall and expanding backwards 6.7mm and have a drilled circular perforation near the back edge, to hold an axis bar, now missing. One of the wing caps is slightly incomplete. The front of the wings are moulded with prarallel longitudinal ridges, with one at the mid point of each wing and another at the wing cap.

The bow expands out of the head with a sub-rectangular cross section, 7.1mm thick and 10.4mm wide, but terminates in a worn break almost immediately after. The bow itself appears to have had a C-shaped cross section, with a convex front and concave back. The bow is moulded into 6 longitudinal ridges, whose lines taper inwards and leave a triangular void at the top of the bow, from which expands a now incomplete integral pierced crest. This crest is 3.0mm wide at its maximum, tapering to a point below. Including this crest the bow is 8.3mm thick.

Overall the brooch fragment is 15.7mm long and weighs 6.67g.

Although there are no exact parallels, Bayley & Butcher (2004: 90, fig. 71) illustrate a number of very similar brooches found at Richborough, which they classify as their group a. They argue that although potentially originating earlier, the Polden hill method of pin attachement generally dates to the period c. AD 80-120, with its distribution focused on the West Midlands. Other polden hill brooches with similar decoration have previously been reported in Somerset, for example SOM-5874A5, SOM-B7BB87.