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Description: | A cast, copper alloy Roman plate brooch of the zoomorphic 'horse and rider' type, dating from about AD 200 - 400. It consists of a horse and rider, galloping to the right and seen in profile. The rider sits upright (leaning backwards slightly) and his leg is angled forwards. There are cells for enamel on the rump and withers of the horse and on its flanks, both before and behind the rider's leg. There are also enamelled cells on the body and leg of the rider. Traces of enamel remain in some of the cells; some is red and some blue, but it is not clear whether the colours have changed in the soil (enamel often degrades to red). The horse's mane is detailed with incised diagonal lines. The extremities of the horse are damaged. Part of the catch plate, the two hemispherical pin lugs and the copper alloy pin bar, together with a very short section of the copper alloy spring pin, remain in situ on the reverse of the brooch. It is 27.8 mm long, 21.7mm wide and 6.9mm thick. It weighs 3.56gm. The brooch has a dark green patina.This brooch is similar to that catalogued by Mackreth as type 2.1a and illustrated in Brooches in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain, Oxbow Books, 2011, volume 2, plate 124, number 7932. Other examples are illustrated in Hattat, 2000, Visual Catalogue of Ancient Brooches, page 359.Compare WILT-1130A1 which notes that:"Bayley and Butcher (2004, 175) note that the quality of this design of brooch is variable (see Hattatt 2000, 359; fig. 218). They state that there are strong indications of a religious connection with this brooch type, with significant quantities being found at temple sites (ibid., 175-176). Catherine Johns (1996, 173-174) suggests that these brooches may depict a Romano-Celtic rider god (perhaps Mars conflated with a local deity), and may have been bought from shrines as the Roman equivalent of medieval pilgrim badges."
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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