BROOCH

A Roman copper alloy sprung Wroxeter brooch, probably dating to c. AD 75-200. The brooch is incomplete, now comprising of the upper bow, head and spring mechanism, the pin and lower bow missing.

The brooch has a D-shaped headplate, 13.7mm wide, with the lower edge being convex and with a sub-rectangular plate projecting from its top edge, 13.5mm wide, decorated with three cross mouldings and terminating in a circular headloop. In profile the headplate is stepped, narrowing between the lower and upper portions of the plate and with an intermediate step. From either edge of the reverse of the headplate projects an integral perforated lug, holding in situ a copper alloy axis bar and the five coils of the spring mechanism, which loops underneath the pin, now missing.

The bow expands from the headplate with a sub-rectangular cross section, 6.8mm wide as it projects from the head and decorated with three parallel longitudinal ridges, cast in relief. The bow tapers down its length to 5.0mm, where it expands into an, originally central, cross moulding consisting of a central oval boss flanked by two tansverse collars to above and below, with a narrowed "waist" between these collars. Below this cross moulding the bow terminates in a break, the cross moulding itself being 8.4 mm wide and with the truncated, vestigial remains of the catchplate expanding from its reverse.

Dimensions: length 43.4mm; width 13.7mm; weight 12.26g.

This brooch is an exaple of Hull's Type 151, illustrated in Bayley & Butcher (2004: 169). The distribution of this type is more focused on North Wales and the Midlands, although they are occasionally found in the South west (cf. SOM-9A6252, SOMDOR-C16481), the earliest examples of the type date from Flavian contexts with the latest being from a hoard deposited c. AD 200 in Chepstow.