BROOCH

A Late Iron Age to Early Roman copper alloy hinged strip bow brooch, probably dating to AD 25-70. The brooch survives largely complete, with damage to the catchplate and the pin missing. The head of the brooch is rolled backwards to house an iron axis bar, which survives in situ, and with a rectangular slot cut into the reverse to accommodate a lost hinged pin. Below the head the bow tapers continuously into a pointed foot, becoming wider in profile towards the foot where an incomplete, unperforated catchplate expands from the reverse. The latter has a right curling pin rest. The bow is decorated with three incised longituidinal lines, one running down the longitudinal median line and with further along each edge; the space in between is filled with obliquely angled lines which converge towards the foot. This decoration terminated above the foot, where is meets a double-stranded incised transverse collar.

Dimensions: 69.7mm in length; 12mm in width; upper bow 1mm thick, lower 3mm just above catchplate; catchplate 18.7mm in length, c 7mm in width; 6.7g in weight.

Bayley & Butcher (2004: fig. 119) illustrate comparable examples, with further parallels excavated in Roman contexts at Dorchester are published by Woodward et al. (1993: fig. 61, nos. 32, 35-36). cf. Mackreth 2011, Chapter 6, part 3, DURO 3. Plate 100 no. 6817.