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Description: | A fragment of a cast copper alloy and tinned Early-Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) brooch of late fifth to sixth century (c. AD 475 - c. AD 600). Length: 20.0mm; width: 15.8mm and 5.6mm thick. Weight: 2.68g.The fragment is probably part of the foot of a small-long brooch or the foot of a radiate-headed brooch. It has old transverse breaks at either end. The break near the catch-plate appears to be more recent than the other break. The front is flat and in plan the sides are curvilinear in profile: they flare outwards and then inwards so that when the foot was complete it was probably sub-lozenge-shaped in plan. The rear face is flat except for the incomplete centrally situated incomplete catch-plate. The front face is decorated with four ring-and-dot motifs along the longitudinal centre-line with two similar motifs, one either side, at the widest part of the foot, all six forming a cruciform shape.A patchy light to mid-green patina has survived on the front and rear. Although barely visible, tinning is present on the front and rear. There is no evidence for melting or burning.If the brooch is a small-long type it may be have been similar to two brooches with lozenge-shaped feet in the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology Collections (MacGregor and Bollick 1993, 145-6, refs. 15.78 and 15.79).Barry Ager, Curator of the Continental Early Medieval Collections at the British Museum, has commented: 'Depending on the form of the original head-plate this could be part of the foot of a small-long brooch, if it [the head] was rectangular. It's a little difficult to be certain, though, as the head might alternatively have been semi-circular with projecting knobs, and more like a radiate-headed brooch. There have been at least a couple of brooches from Kent in recent years with semi-circular heads and lozenge feet, e.g. one from Littlebourne with ring-and-dot decoration that was recorded at Canterbury Museum in 1999. There was another with similar decoration, but more pronounced lateral lobes on the foot, that is on the PAS database (KENT-09C753). They may be Anglo-Saxon imitations of a possibly North German type, dating from around the late 5th - 6th century'.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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