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Description: | A fragment of tinned copper alloy Roman early plate brooch, dating to mid-late 1st century AD. Just less than half the brooch survives, complete with a pair of lugs for the missing hinge mechanism. Also missing are the probable shale or bone roundel decorations.In shape the brooch would have originally been a lozenge, with a D-shaped projection between each corner. At the centre is a circular area, which would have had a roundel slightly larger than those attached to the D-shaped projections. Now surviving are two corners and two D-shaped projections, and roughly half of the central circular area.One D-shaped projection has an in situ copper alloy rivet 1.95mm in diameter and 1.91mm in length. The other has a rivet hole 1.56mm in diameter. Around this is a slightly sunken circular area c.6mm in diameter with no trace of tinning (which is present over the rest of the surface of the brooch) suggesting this was also the diameter of the missing roundel. This area is rather less-defined around the projection with in situ rivet.The corners, triangular in shape, are decorated with linear grooves (in imitation of a leaf), extending from a central point on the concentric groove behind each corner, and radiating to different points around the edge of the triangle. Behind the concentric groove, and flanked on its other side by a sunken circular area (also without tinning), is a panel of punched dots forming a zig-zag line.The sunken area at the centre of the brooch is c.12mm in diameter, with a slight ridge inside creating an area c.9mm in diameter at the centre. It is likely this was the original diameter of the missing central roundel.The tinning is almost entirely intact, as is usually the case on this type of brooch. To the reverse there is iron corrosion in the holes of the pair of D-shaped lugs, suggesting the axis bar was of iron.The fragment measures 28.55x19.42x5.70mm, the plate without the lugs 1.31mm thick, and it weighs 2.71g.The brooch is very similar to another found in Northampton (Hattatt no.513). When published in 1985, Hattatt knew of only a handful of other examples of this type of brooch, all from the Eastern counties. These have been found principally on military sites and not before AD43. They did not stay in fashion long, at the most 50 years or so.
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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