EARLY MEDIEVAL BROOCH

500

Incomplete Early Saxon brooch, head and part of bow missing. The remaining fragment of bow has two incised horizontal lines at the junction with the foot (19 x >42mm). The foot is flanked by slight swellings (similar to lappets) at the springing of the bow, after which it widens and then tapers to an expanded semi-circular terminal. The foot has remains of bordering lines of double semi-circular stamps. There is a triangular catch-plate on the reverse.This brooch bears some resemblance to an incomplete brooch from Grimston (HER 13800, published in Ashley and Rogerson (1992), 361-2, no.4), as well as other brooches on the PAS database. KENT3392, for example, has been classed as a miniature radiate-headed brooch, due to its semi-circular headplate which is similar to those on Frankish radiate-headed brooches. However, the headplate on this brooch form does not have the radiating knops which give the radiate-headed brooches their name. Continental brooches of a similar form have been termed 'miniaturefibeln' or miniature brooches. Two pairs of brooches from Bifrons, Kent (graves 77 and 89) suggest that this kind of curved tapering foot can also be found together with a rectangular headplate (S. Hawkes 2000, 'The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery of Bifrons, in the Parish of Patrixbourne, East Kent' in Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 11, 1-94). Further study of all these small brooches is needed to understand their relationship with other brooch forms from this period.