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Description: | A cast copper alloy fragment from a probable Iron Age (La Tene III) Nauheim derivative brooch, circa 150BC - 75AD.
The body of the brooch has a bowed profile, which tapers towards the head and towards the foot. It also has an irregular polygonal (D shaped) cross section. The brooch is 65mm long, 6.5mm wide, and 6.4mm thick. The brooch fragment weighs 14.47 grams.
The brooch is broken above the bow close to where the integral spring would have been located.
At the foot of the brooch is a small integral catch plate. This catch plate is 12.2mm long, 6.6mm wide, and 3.9mm thick. It is sub- triangular in plan with a small sub-rectangular recess to hold the pin.
The body of the brooch has been decorated with a series of cast and incised linear motifs. There are three areas of decoration.
The first is on the upper surface (spine) of the brooch. This decoration consists of a pair of vertical parallel incised lines (1.8mm apart) which run along the whole length of the bow. Within these two vertical lines are a series of horizontal parallel lines, which divided the space into sub-rectangular panels. Each of these panels differs in size and shape suggesting that this decoration has been achieved by hand. The average panel measures 1mm long by 1.8mm wide. Much of this decoration has been damaged by corrosion.
The second and third areas have the same decoration and are located on both sides of the brooch. This decoration consists of two rows of cast triangles, which are indented. The upper row of triangles on both sides is inverted so the two rows of triangles interlock / tessellate. These decorations have also been obscured by corrosion.
The reverse (back) of the brooch is plain with no areas of decoration.
The brooch is of a mid-dark green colour and has an even patina which covers the surface of body and the break at the head of the brooch. This suggests that this break is relatively old and not the product of modern damage. Also there are patches of old corrosion which have eaten into the surface of the brooch leaving some areas pitted. This pitting has destroyed or distorted much of the decoration present. Amongst this old corrosion are patches of active, light green, corrosion.
Similar parralells for this type of brooch can be seen in Richard Hattatt's Ancient and Romano-British brooches (1994) pages 57-59. | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | -150
75 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Peter Reavill | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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