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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 head is small and narrow, with short semi-cylindrical wings with caps on each end. The ends of the wings (near the caps) are decorated by a pair of longitudinal grooves. In profile, the wings caps are sub-oval. One is complete while the other is damaged around its edge. Each wing cap has a single perforation in it to support an axis bar. The wings caps however, are very abraded making the ends of the axis bar indistinct. The spring is still attached to the brooch but is damaged. Severn complete turns of the spring remain, the rest are either damaged or missing. The damage to the spring, however, allows the axis bar to be seen, which is made of cast copper alloy.
In the centre of the bow head, at the junction of the wings is a median knurled crest. The crest has a single piercing at one end which is used to secure an external overhead chord. A fragment of the chord is still visible. The crest extends forwards down the bow before tapering to a blunt point. The crest stops at around the same depth as the wings. The crest is accentuated further by a v-shaped groove running around its perimeter. The brooch has a narrow, tapering bow which is D-shaped in cross-section. In profile, the bow rises high from the wings before a quick downturn and continuous curve to a plain foot (Hattatt, R 1987. Brooches of Antiquity. Oxbow: Oxford, p.97, fig. 896). The brooch has a small sub-triangular catchplate, which is 19.8mm long and 11.7mm wide. The catchplate is integral and there is not step between the catchplate and the bow. It has a single perforation in its centre consisting of an inverted triangle. The brooch has a folded pin rest. Looking at the reverse of the brooch in plan, one can see that the upper and lower edge of the pin rest is decorated by a pair of traverse grooves. The reverse of the bow is flat.
The brooch is dark green in colour, with lighter patches of pitting and abrasion to the wings, the crest and catchplate. The pin rest has a traverse break across it but remains intact. The width of the brooch across the wings is 18.9mm; the length from the wings to the base of the bow is 50.1mm. The thickness of the head is 10.9mm and its weight is 7.43g. A similar example to the recorded object can be seen in Hattatt, (fig. 34, no.896). The recorded brooch is slightly different having a smaller catchplate, and only one pair of grooves on the wings. According to Hattatt, the recorded brooch is similar to Polden Hill brooches found mainly around the Severn Valley area. He also tentatively suggests an early date for the brooch due to its lack of appendages. | 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: | 50
75 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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