EARLY MEDIEVAL BROOCH

500

Surface metal analysis conducted at the British Museum indicated an approximate silver content for the brooch fragment of 89% with copper, lead, gold and tin also detected; it weighs 3.51 grams.The fragment consists of the foot-plate of a miniature square-headed brooch; height, 35mm (surviving); width, 24mm. In the centre is a hollow-sided, lozenge-shaped panel enclosed by a border ridge, which is asymmetrically decorated with zoomorphic elements of Salin's Style I including two limbs and a ribbon-like body. The foot-plate tapers to a long, animal-head terminal with punched, circular eyes. The side lobe on the right and what were probably two animal heads at the shoulders are broken away and the opposite lobe is slightly bent up. The foot-plate is bordered with continuous lines of punched triangles and there are the remains of gilding in the grooves of the decoration and traces of niello inlay. On the back, the catch-plate is missing, but traces of solder and a slight depression indicate where it was once fixed along the central axis.The central decoration appears to be a reduced variant of similar designs appearing in the decoration of a Frankish miniature brooch from Horkheim, Germany, of 6th-century date, which also has an animal-headed terminal, and larger versions with a variety of terminals, e.g. from Gönningen, Belleben, Niederbreisig, and Mülhofen, Germany (H. Kühn, 1940, Die germanischen Bügelfibeln der Völkerwanderungszeit in der Rheinprovinz, Bonn, pls. 102: 39,6, and 103: 40,9-11; G. Haseloff, 1981, Die germanische Tierornamentik der Völkerwanderungszeit. Studien zu Salin's Stil I, Berlin, pl. 57, 3). These parallels suggest that the foot-plate from North Cave is probably part of a Frankish brooch 'imported' from the Continent, although the absence of the head-plate and bow make it difficult to be entirely certain.