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Description: | The brooch is a Colchester Two-Piece of Polden Hill type. The brooch is made from cast copper alloy and is incomplete. Polden Hill brooches are Roman and date to around 50-75 AD.
In plan, the brooch has long semi-cylindrical wings with caps on each end. In profile the wings caps are sub-circular and complete. Each wing cap has a single perforation in it to support an axis bar. The wings caps are however, very abraded making the ends of the axis bar indistinct. Despite this, and due to the fact that no corrosion products from any other type of material are present, for example iron, one can say that the axis bar is most probably copper alloy. Although eight complete turns of the spring remain, the spring is very abraded, and is damaged along the external chord, shortly after it passes through the overhead lug. The rest of the spring and the pin are missing. Looking at the front of the brooch, the ends of the wings (nearest the caps) are decorated by two longitudinal grooves.
The bow head is slightly humped and is flanked on both sides by pronounced and alternately angled appendages. Although quite large in plan, in profile they are small and crescent shaped, continuing under the bow head to create a slight under head bulge. In the centre of the hump, at the junction of the wings is a heavily abraded backward facing lug with a single piercing, which is used to secure the external chord. The lug extends forwards to form a single, longitudinal, median rib, which extends partially down the bow. The bow is sub-rectangular in cross-section. In plan it is quite narrow, tapering from the outset to a blunt point. In profile it is C-shaped, forming one short continuous curve. The rest of the brooch is missing due to a break which has occurred above the catchplate. The reverse of the brooch is flat.
The brooch is in a poor condition with a patchy mid green patina, and frequent light green patches of abrasion. The width of the brooch across the wings is 24.8mm; the length from the wings to the base of the bow is 29.0mm. The thickness of the head is 14.2mm and its weight is 8.21g. Hattatt (Hattatt, R 1987. Brooches of Antiquity. Oxbow: Oxford ) has an example of a complete brooch which is similar to the recorded object, but slightly different in terms of decoration on the wings (see fig. 34, no. 895). No. 895 has knurled rib on the wings and very small appendages, whereas the recorded object has longitudinal grooves on the wings and slightly larger appendages. | Subjects: | Colchester Two-Piece Polden Hill | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Housley, Sarah - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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