BROOCH

Fragment of a cast copper alloy Roman Polden Hill type brooch, which would have had two parts and is now missing its spring mechanism and pin. Between the two wings, at the head of the brooch, are the remains of the loop or hook and the chord that extended from the spring. The front of the wings are intact but form part of the cylindrical crossbar where the spring would have been housed, between the two closed ends which secured the axial rod. The wings are decorated on each side with three raised ribs, that are 1 mm thick, alternating with transverse vertical grooves, that are 2 mm thick, so that they look like rope, running around the circumference of the wing. The head of the brooch has a central, vertical, moulded ridge between two more oblique ribs on either side which taper towards the broken end, 15 mm down the length of the bow. The bow is circular in section, where it has broken off, about a third of the way down its original length, looking at comparanda, above the foot and catch plate, now missing. The whole fragment is very corroded and encrusted so that any more detail of the decoration cannot be made out.

Hattatt (2000) illustrates similar examples of sprung Polden Hill type brooches with similar mouldings on p.300, fig.159, nos.895-897, which are dated from the 1st century AD.

Bayley and Butcher (2004) illustrate a similar sprung Polden Hill brooch on page 159, fig.128, no.T98, which dates from the late 1st century to the early 2nd century AD.