BROOCH

Copper alloy brooch, crossbow type. Missing pin, half the crossarm and much of the foot including the whole catchplate. The surfaces are corroded and the foot is bent. The crossarm is solid, with the stub of an iron pin which would have held the pin, and hexagonal in section, with a serrated rib across the front. The side knob is a flattened sphere with central hole and a deep groove and rib moulding at the base. The top knob is similar but with a more pointed top and a narrower base moulding. The bow is flat backed with high sloping sides and a rounded centre angle; there is no surviving decoration except for a rib near the base. This rib is damaged and appears to have been a separated square-section strip wrapped around the bow. The fot has a slightly convex upper face but no other detail survives. There is a very slight trace of probable gilding on the back of the crossarm. Surviving width 25mm, surviving length 57mm. This brooch is comparable to Keller's types 2 and 3/4, suggesting an early to mid fourth century date. Crossbow brooches are not very common in lowland Britain but groups of similar type are known from Caister on Sea shore fort (Butcher in Darling with Gurney, EAA 60, 1993, 75) and from Felixstowe, also a late fort site. This example and others from Levington and south-east Ipswich may reflect army activity in east Suffolk in the late Roman period.