Description
Material: Copper alloy artefact
Period: Anglo–Saxon
Date: c6th-7th century
Origin: Britain
Condition: About Very Fine with dark patina. pin missing
Description: A cruciform brooch with a square head-plate with crescent-shaped wings on three sides (trefoil head). a short middle bow area and elongated foot-plate with expanding finial. Head and foot decorated with incised lines.
Size and Weight: 80mm x 34mm. 19g
References: cf Hattatt Fig 235. p376. Mills: Saxon and Viking Artefacts. p33 for similar.
Features and Provenance: Buttons did not exist at this point in history. brooches and clothes fastenings. made of metal or bone were the norm. The Romans had introduced a variety of fibulae or brooch types based on a crossbow formation (not that they had crossbows then) and by the 5th century they were adapted by the Saxons arriving in England for their particular tastes and manufacturing abilities. Our example is a basic cruciform long brooch would have had an iron pin. these of course rust away and are very rarely found intact. The smaller brooches were usually worn in pairs by women to attach the tunic at the shoulders or singly to attach a cloak.
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