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Description: | An incomplete Roman cast copper-alloy and enamelled zoomorphic plate brooch (AD 100-200). The brooch is in the form of a sitting hen or cockerel.This brooch is pirifom in plan, rounded at the front and slightly pointed at the back. It has a domed upper surface and is concave on the underside. The head of the bird is above the rounded end and the tail is above the pointed end.The head is flat and sub-circular in profile and has a comb at the top but the points are missing due to abrasion. The single wattle has a rounded underside and at each side there is a triangular cell partially filled with decayed enamel now coloured drab brown. The two eyes above the wattle are identical. Both are modelled as ring-and-dot motifs, forming two cells which are now empty. It is unclear whether these have been stamped or cast. The pointed beak is prominent and intact. Each side of the bird's back has four linear cells, presumably representing the wings. Two of these cells are filled with bright blue and crazed enamel on one side of the body but the corresponding cells on the other side of the body are empty. The remaining cells on both sides of the body are partially filled with decayed greenish brown enamel. Flanking the breast and just in front of each wing there are four sub-triangular cells on each side of the body which have a near vertical alignment. These are either empty or contain traces of enamel of a similar greenish brown colour. They probably represent the cape.The sickle type tail of the bird is largely missing due to a break but the remaining stub has the remains of a circular perforation. It has been suggested that this may have been for the attachment of a chain (Crummy: 1983: pp. 15). Below the tail, on the underside of the body, there are two incomplete parallel lugs and a break has occurred through the circular perforation of each lug. At the opposite end of the plate there is a small stub, all that remains of the catch-plate.This brooch has a patchy mid-green patina with small areas of active corrosion. The breaks are old.Height: 24.9mm; length: 32.4mm; width: 18.9mm. Weight: 8.33g.Similar hen or cockerel brooches has been published (Hattatt (1982: 164, fig. 70, ref: 167 ); Crummy, 1981: 15, fig. 14, ref: 75; Bayley & Butcher 2004: 175, ref: T214).Similar brooches have been recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database. For example, see finds: BUC-66ED85; BUC-D52294; LIN-FAE582; SF-DE8BD4; SOM-ACAB10 and WILT-A4B0D5.
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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