Description

Summary: Iron Age bow brooch from Battlesbury Bowl, Warminster, excavated by Wessex Archaeology in 1998.

Research results

A Middle Iron Age bow brooch excavated by Wessex Archaeology in 1998, from the Iron Age settlement at Battlesbury Bowl, Warminster.

This brooch was examined by Adams (2013) as part of her PhD with the University of Leicester. This PhD examined an updated corpus of Iron Age Brooches across Britain in order to re-evaluate existing typologies and widely accepted chronology, as well as to investigate potential regional patterns and production. In particular the study highlights that direct dating evidence for most brooches is in fact quite poor, despite them often being used as chronological markers in the period. Reviewing all published radiocarbon dates associated with Iron Age brooches, Adams suggests that brooches were first introduced c. 450 BC, as well as refining the chronology of a number of specific types, although they note that the evidence is scarce.