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Description: | A probable Early Medieval disc brooch: The copper alloy brooch is was originally circular in plan, but now is incomplete and has broken edges, which are not recent. In profile the brooch is slightly curved, with the outer face being concave and the underside convex, which may be due, slightly to damage rather than intention. The outer face may be decorated with an indistinguishable design as the surface is abraded and has lost the originally patina, of which there are only traces. The reverse of the brooch has two parallel perforated lugs at one edge which forms the hinge. There is a copper alloy axis bar and the remains of a copper alloy hinge which would form the pin. Opposite the hinge, on the opposite edge, there is the remains of a catchplate. The reverse surface of the brooch has an incomplete dark green patina. In diameter the brooch is 31.72mm, and in depth across the catchplate it is 7.2mm It weighs 4.2g.The brooch is probably a disc brooch dates to the Early Medieval period, most likely to the mid 5th to mid 6th centuries. MacGregor and Bolick (1993, 57) comment that: 'Almost all the decoration found on these brooches is inscribed or stamped on the surface after casting; the only exceptions may be the broad concentric grooves found on a few brooches. Incised concentric circles and ring-and-dot motifs account for most of the patterns encountered, frequently complemented by concentric patterns of smaller punch marks - annulets, crescents (usually produced with an annulet stamp held at an angle), triangles, and V- or S-stamps. A central dot forms a common feature, no doubt representing the axis around which a scriber has been rotated; in some instances the dot is markedly deep and often the brooch is completely perforated at the centre. Not infrequently the periphery of the brooch is notched. Tinning is common on these brooches (especially the more highly-decorated examples), but gilding is not encountered, adding to the impression that they occupy a position complementary to that of the saucer and applied brooches of the more affluent sections of Saxon society...There are no obvious Continental prototypes for these brooches, which seem to have been an insular Anglo-Saxon development. As a whole the type tends to occur south of a line from the Severn to the Wash. Within this region the upper Thames Valley is particularly productive and may have formed a major production centre. The date range spans the fifth and sixth centuries (most of them occupying the median hundred years or so), with little evidence for formal development within that period.'MacGregor and Bolick 1993 A Summary Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon Collections B.A.R. 120
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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