BROOCH

An Incomplete and small plate brooch probably Roman and of continental origin ; probably dating to AD 100 to 250.

The brooch's, plate/bow, its head, its attachment lug and a small fragment of its pin survive.

The plate/bow of the brooch survives as a flat oval plate, that ends in a worn break at its lower edge. The centre of this oval section is recessed to provide an oval cell which likely contained enamel although none of this material now survives in situ. The head is placed at the top edge of the plate/bow and is offset backwards from the plate by 3.2mm. Its projects from the cell with a width of 5.1mm as it angled backwards, then flattened to parallel to the cell and widens slightly before narrowing to a rounded point at its tip. The front of the head is decorated by three impressed lines running transversely across the foot in its lower half that contain a white material, probably modern preservation wax.

On the reverse of the head are twin perforated pin lugs with round outer edges that project 4.2mm from plate. The space between these lugs is filled with copper corrosion product and the remains of the articulated copper alloy pin which is now cemented in place around its corroded iron axis bar. The pin has been snapped almost immediately after its hinge.

The brooch survives to 20.7mm long and 8.0mm wide. It is 4.7mm thick excluding the attachment lugs and 8.8mm thick including them. It weighs 1.54 grams.

It is hard to parallel the brooch exactly, especially in its truncated form but the celled bow, probably originally containing enamel, and offset pointed terminal are found on Roman equal ended imported continental brooches (Mackreth 2011, plate 111) which are noted as being particularly varied (Mackreth 2011, 167).

Alternatively, the bow's offsetting from the head closely resembles Early Medieval, 7th century, Ansate brooches such as Weitch's group VI (2013 153), brooches with rhombic or trapezoidal terminals with no comer or lateral projections (ibid). Yet these do not have enamel decoration or circular celled bodies.

On balance then, while no exact parallel can be found within the consulted Roman brooch catalogues, it would be more likely that the brooch is Roman in date