Description

Summary: 1 piece of iron object, possibly part of a brooch, from Cold Kitchen Hill, Brixton Deverill, Wiltshire.

Research results

An Iron Age brooch excavated by R. Nan Kivell in the 1920s, from Cold Kitchen Hill, Brixton Deverill. The site consists of a probable Romano-British temple preceded by an Iron Age settlement, although unfortunately the contextual information for the individual objects is not recorded. Brooches of this form were probably first introduced around c. 275 BC, and continued to be deposited throughout the middle Iron Age and possibly beyond.

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.