TREASURE ANNU AL REPORT 2005/6 - Portable Antiquities Scheme

200. Edlesborough, buckinghamshire: Anglo-saxon
gilded silver disc brooch fragment (2005 T35)
Date: Late 6th century
Discovery: Found by Mr P Banks while metal-detecting
in April 2004.
Description: The fragment forms a substantial
fragment of the rim and main decorative border of a
keystone garnet disc brooch of Avent’s class 7.1 (Avent,
1975). The raised rim has very worn traces of milling
and encloses a raised, flat-topped silver arc decorated
with a zigzag formed by small, punched, interlocking
triangles. At each end of the arc is an empty setting for
an inlay. The arc is separated by a sharp ridge from a
broad inner zone, decorated with an empty keystoneshaped
setting flanked by an animal head in Salin’s
zoomorphic Style II to the right and an animal limb and
triple-barred body to the left. Surface analysis indicated
a silver content of approximately 93%. Weight: 4.06g.
Discussion: This type of female brooch is dated from
the late 6th century to around AD 630 by Avent (1975).
A parallel is provided by a similar brooch from Guston,
Kent, although the shapes of the settings in the raised
arcs differ (Avent 1975, no. 129).
Disposition: Buckinghamshire County Museum.
B AGER
201. brighstone, Isle of Wight: Early medieval
silver-gilt brooch fragments (2005 T327)
Date: 6th century
Discovery: Found by Mr S O’Brien while metaldetecting
in August 2005.
Description: Three fragments of a damaged, Kentish,
silver-gilt, keystone garnet disc brooch. The largest
fragment a substantial part, with two complete
keystone settings with garnets on waffle-patterned
metal foils; the third setting is partly broken and
empty. A central, round setting is now empty, while
the back of this part retains part of the pin holder.
The fields between the keystone garnets, abutting the
central roundel, are decorated with disjointed Style
I ornament. The second fragment has the broken pin
catch on the back and one part of the broken garnet
setting on the front. A keystone garnet with wafered
gold foil still stuck to its back is the third fragment.
The front of the brooch was originally gilt. Max
diameter: 21mm; total weight: 3.96g. Surface analysis
indicated a silver content of approximately 88%, and
confirmed the red stones as garnet.
Discussion: The ornament characterises this brooch
as part of Avent’s Class 2 (Avent 1975). Due to its
fragmentary state it is difficult to ascertain the
sub-group, but it is probably 2.3 rather than 2.4.
Disposition: Isle of Wight Museum Service.
S MARZINZIK
202. Cliffe, Kent: Anglo-saxon silver-gilt brooch
foot-plate (2005 T122)
Date: Early to mid 6th century
Discovery: Found by Mr L Ross while metal-detecting
in April 2005.
Description: An almost complete, lozenge-shaped
foot-plate of an early Anglo-Saxon square-headed
brooch with the catch-plate for the pin on the back.
The decoration is rather abraded and indistinct in
places, but consists of a low lozenge-shaped rib framing
a quatrefoil formed by two back-to-back S-scrolls.
At the top centre is a facemask with two round eyes,
to the right of which is an indistinct Style I zoomorphic
design, but the section to the left is broken away.
At the opposite, rounded terminal are two semicircular
eyes. Traces of small, nielloed triangles survive on the
framing lozenge. Length: 29mm; weight: 5.9g. Surface
analysis indicated a silver content of approximately
90%, with traces of mercury gilding.
Discussion: The brooch belongs to the group of Leigh’s
Series I and II, mainly of Kentish origin and datable
as above (Leigh 1980). The scroll motif may be a
simplified version of the floriated cross in a lozengeshaped
frame on the brooch from Finglesham, grave
D3, Kent, although a similar design also occurs on
brooches of an East Midlands type (Leeds 1949, pl. 1;
Hines 1997, pls. 47-50).
Disposition: British Museum had hoped to acquire but
withdrew; returned to finder.
B AGER
203. Eastry, Kent: Anglo-saxon silver brooch
fragment (2005 T160)
Date: 6th century
Discovery: Found by Wessex Archaeology in association
with Time Team during controlled excavations in
May 2005.
Description: A fragment consisting of the rectangular
head-plate and part of the bow of an Early Medieval
miniature bow brooch, of which the original form is
uncertain in view of the absence of the foot-plate. The
head-plate has a roughly beaded edge round a collet
enclosing a rectangular garnet mounted on a gridpatterned
foil; on the back is a broken lug for hinging a
pin. Length: 13mm; width: 8mm; weight: 1.35g. Surface
analysis indicated a silver content of approximately 97%.
Discussion: The miniature form and shape of the headplate
may be compared with a pair of small brooches
dating to the 6th century, with rectangular heads and
triangular feet from Mucking, Essex, grave 102 (British
Museum, registration nos. 1970,4-6,22-23). The type
has more distant parallels with a plain brooch of similar
form from Issendorf, Germany, inhumation grave no.
3553, and another with a more elongated foot which
has lost its decorative mounts, said uncertainly to be
from Herpes, Charente, France (Hässler 2002, p. 241,
fig. 4, 2; British Museum reg. no. 1905,5-20,192). But
in the absence of the foot it is also possible that the
Eastry brooch represents an unusual version of Anglo-
Saxon miniature square-headed brooch, a type that
was often inlaid with rectangular garnets (Åberg, 1926,
figs. 136 & 142-4). For a fragmentary silver example,
though without garnet, see Breamore, Hampshire
(Treasure Annual Report 2001, no. 33).
Disposition: Dover Museum hopes to acquire with
the main site archive.
B AGER
204. North of Ipswich, suffolk (addenda):
Anglo-saxon silver-gilt brooch fragments and
associated finds (2005 T4)
Date: Mid 6th century
Discovery: Found by Mr J McLaughlin while metaldetecting
in December 2004; addenda to the original
find of October 2003, see Treasure Annual Report 2003,
no. 72.
Description:
1. Three silver-gilt brooch fragments of the brooch
from the original find (2003, no. 72.1): a basal lobe of
the foot-plate; a joining fragment from the shoulder
of the foot-plate leading to the median lobe; and a
fragment from the right shoulder.
2. A silver spiral wrist-clasp, one spiral with a loose end
rising towards the eye fastener, which is now missing.
3. Two further silver-gilt fragments of the object,
possibly a cruciform brooch, in the original find (2003,
no. 72.4), possibly a cruciform brooch.
4. A gilt copper alloy fragment, possibly an arm
terminal, from a cruciform brooch.
5. The gilded copper alloy head and bow of a small
square-headed brooch.
6. A catch-plate, possibly silver-gilt, from either a large
square-headed or cruciform brooch.
7. A small iron object with an ogival blade, possibly a
spearhead or a knife.
8. Two silver-gilt fragments of a square-headed brooch:
part of a head-plate and part of bow with pin catch.
9. A copper-alloy annular brooch with ribbed
decoration.
10. Two fragments of a copper-alloy annular brooch,
the larger fragment flat and with ring-and-dot
decoration.
11. A fragment of a copper-alloy disc with an uneven
surface, apparently distorted, possibly through heat.
This object might be a Roman coin.
12. A shoe-shaped silver belt stud, inlaid with a ringand-dot
decorated copper-alloy repoussé sheet. This
item matches the stud from the original find (2003,
no. 72.3).
13. Four amber beads of irregular shapes and sizes, one
damaged.
14. Four sections of a copper-alloy chain, with one
separate link (damaged).
15. An iron fragment, flat and elongated, possibly
from a knife. The object is heavily corroded with some
cracking and flaking occurring, both ends have
broken off.
16. An iron knife with a curved back, the tip and
the end of the tang broken off, with some further
fragments.
17. A silver wire-spiral, bent open, damaged in two
places, probably forming one half of another
wrist-clasp.
Discussion: For further discussion and comparanda,
especially for the stud (no. 12) see the original
Treasure Annual Report 2003. The presence of the
likely spearhead (no. 7) as well as the amber beads
and several knives and knife fragments now suggest
that all these associated finds are more likely to have
originated from disturbed graves than to be part of a
metal smith’s scrap or stock in trade.
Disposition: Colchester & Ipswich Museums Service.
S MARZINZIK & A C EVANS
205. Newchurch, Kent: Late Anglo-saxon
silver bird-shaped brooch fragment (2005 T309)
Date: 8th–10th century
Discovery: Found by Mrs J Partridge while metaldetecting
in August 2005.
Description: The find is in the shape of an upright
bird in profile, with large head and straight beak.
The eye is in the shape of a large flattened pellet,
with a recess, either indicating the pupil, or originally
meant to contain some glass or stone inset. The tail
is missing. On its back, the bird carries what might
be a small cross, with the right arm broken off, and a
piece missing, but with a fragment still attached to the
bird’s neck. It seems likely that the brooch could have
been used as a pendant, with a cord or chain passing
in the eyelet formed between the bird’s neck and the
cross/fledgling: this might account for the break and
the damage to this area. Max. height: 23mm; weight:
4.38g. Surface analysis indicated a silver content of
approximately 97%.
Discussion: Brooches in the shape of birds are fairly
common Scandinavian finds (Pedersen 2001), and
examples have been found in Germany, France and
England. Some are just in the shape of birds; others
carry crosses, rosettes or small fledglings. It may be
argued that it is a fledgling with upright wing, and not
a cross, that this bird carries on its back, on account
of the unusual proportion of the cross with rather
elongated arms, and of the angle of the severed
right one. Whilst some of these brooches can be
understood to follow in the tradition of bird-shaped
Germanic ornaments, the addition of Christian symbols
makes their devotional character evident. The beak of
the Newchurch bird could identify it either as a dove,
symbol of the Holy Spirit, or as an eagle, symbolic of
the Resurrection.
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