TREASURE ANNU AL REPORT 2005/6 - Portable Antiquities Scheme

EARLY MEDIEVAL
(I) bRooChEs
197. Gillingham, Kent: Early Anglo-saxon silver-gilt
relief brooch (2006 T78)
Date: Mid to late 5th century
Discovery: Found by Mr R Gavin in association with
Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd during a controlled
metal-detecting survey of a development site with
substantial Roman and Medieval phases, in February
2006 (see also this volume no. 172). The brooch
was recovered from a rectangular pit, either from its
backfill, or placed in a smaller feature cut into it.
Description: The brooch is cast in silver with moulded
relief decoration. It has a semicircular head-plate
with three projecting knobs, while the curved bow is
straight-sided with a flat cross-section. A central panel
running down the length of the bow is inlaid with
niello in a repeating motif of circles and lines known
as a ‘paragraphenmuster’ (or ‘paragraph’) design and
with seven rectangular zones of decoration on either
side. The lozengiform foot-plate carries a central
panel of relief decoration in the form of a rosette, and
further relief panels. Two opposed openwork birds
project either side of the upper foot-plate, with a
series of five semicircular segments below, creating a
scalloped effect. At the terminal of the foot-plate is a
circular projection. On the reverse the pin and spring
mechanism, which is of iron, is complete (although the
pin is now broken), although the catch-plate is missing.
The front of the brooch is gilded. Length: 84.7mm;
width: 41.45mm; weight: 31.97g.
Discussion: The closest parallel to the Gillingham
brooch is a very similar example that has been in
Canterbury Museum since the late 1800s (Bakka 1958,
9, fig.2; Richardson 2005, II, 16, fig.2). This brooch
is something of a one-off, certainly within England;
notably, the lower foot-plate is flanked by crouching
animals in an arrangement directly derived from late
Roman chip-carved metalwork. Crucially, there are
traces of textile preserved by contact with the iron
corrosion of the mechanism, which strongly implies
that this brooch is from a burial, since it must have
been attached to a garment when buried. This brooch
has long been regarded as a Scandinavian import
decorated in the Nydam Style, an art style that
represented a transition between late Roman motifs
and the Scandinavian style known as Style I. However,
the rosette design on the foot-plate only appears
on Anglo-Saxon, and some Continental, brooches,
but never in this context on Scandinavian pieces,
and the ‘paragraph’ decoration on both Gillingham
and Canterbury examples is virtually unparalleled in
Scandinavia. In itself, the ‘paragraph’ design is another
late Roman design; it appears to have been initially
used on weapon accessories such as mounts and
buckles. Given that both brooches discussed here were
found in east Kent, and that in the later 5th and 6th
centuries a distinctively Kentish workshop produced,
under strong Scandinavian and Frankish influence, a
series of square-headed brooches, the possibility that
the Gillingham and Canterbury relief brooches are
early east Kentish products must be considered.
Disposition: To be determined.
A RICHARDSON
198. hollingbourne, Kent: Anglo-saxon silver
equal-arm brooch fragment (2006 T277)
Date: 5th century
Discovery: Found by Mr J Darvill while metal-detecting
in August 2005.
Description: The fragment joins another fragment
of the same brooch (see Treasure Annual Report
2003, no. 71), acquired by Maidstone Museum, this
section broken from the sloping side of one of the two
triangular plates, a terminal head and the forequarters
of a second animal survive from the inner zoomorphic
border, beneath which are four parallel ridges. Length:
24mm; weight: 3.5g. Surface metal analysis indicated
a silver content of approximately 36%, comparing
closely with the figure of 39% for the first fragment.
For discussion of the brooch, see the 2003 entry.
Disposition: Generously donated by the finder and
landowner to Maidstone Museum.
B AGER
199. Lichfield area, staffordshire: Anglo-saxon gold
disc brooch or mount (2005 T94)
Date: 5th century
Discovery: Found by Mr A Southwell and Mr Storr
while metal-detecting in March 2005.
Description: The object consists of a filigree bordered
base-plate of circular gold sheet with a threedimensional
figure of a crouching, four-legged animal
(a feline?) mounted along the diameter and buttressed
by a pair of supporting zoomorphic heads on either
side that rise and curve inwards from the base. The
head of the central animal figure is bent down to touch
the base-plate and has incised, lentoid eyes, snout,
mouth and projecting ears that have been almost
flattened by wear; a double groove runs the length of
its spine, with six curving triangular groups of incised
lines on either side indicating fur.
Seen from the sides the two supporting heads have
open fanged jaws and seem to be biting the flanks
of the central animal. Seen from above, however,
they have almost the appearance of long-nosed
human heads with hair in vertical rows. Although the
transformation of human into animal forms is a wellattested
characteristic of Early Medieval Germanic
art it is doubtful, however, whether it applies in the
present case (Leigh 1984).
Near the edge on the back are soldered a pierced,
narrow, trapezoidal lug, probably for hinging a pin (now
missing), and, opposite and in line with it, the stub of a
second lug which could originally have formed the pincatch,
but which appears to have been cut down. This
makes it difficult to be entirely certain that the object
is a brooch and not a mount. Weight: 7.87g. Surface
analysis indicated a gold content of approximately 76%.
Discussion: Disc brooches formed part of female
costume in the early Anglo-Saxon period, but the
figures on the Lichfield find are unique for the type.
A possible analogy to the design is to be found on a
small group of late 5th-century Scandinavian/Baltic
region buckles with zoomorphic tongues sometimes
flanked by animal or human heads, although it should
be noted that these face outwards from the centre,
e.g. from Sjörup, Skåne, Sweden, Proosa, Estonia, and
Snartemo, Norway (Salin 1904, figs. 385 and 388;
Roth 1979, fig. 196a; Hougen 1967, fig. 29). A further
putative parallel can be found in two Nydam Style
buckles from Ejsbøl South, Denmark, on which pairs of
long-nosed zoomorphic heads on the loops curve in
towards animal-headed tongues (Ørsnes 1988,
pl. 57, 1 & 3; Dr M Axboe, in lit.). The long-nosed heads
also have Scandinavian parallels in the 4th, late 5th
and 6th centuries, and the triple filigree wires of the
border can be paralleled on northern Germanic gold
jewellery and sword fittings. Three-dimensional animal
figures are not common in Germanic metalwork at this
time and were probably inspired by Roman models.
Such comparisons indicate that this item dates from
the early Anglo-Saxon period, most probably as above,
and is likely to be an imported piece from southern
Scandinavia, or perhaps from northern Germany.
Disposition: Potteries Museum & Art Gallery,
Stoke-on-Trent.
B AGER
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