Description

Summary: 1 curved piece of metal possibly from a penannular brooch, from the early Iron Age settlement at All Cannings Cross Farm, All Cannings Cross, Wiltshire. Excavated by Mr B H Cunnington and Mrs M E Cunnington, 1911-22.

Research results

A Fragment of a Copper Alloy penannular brooch excavated by William and Maud Cunnington at All Cannings Cross, 1911-1922. All Cannings Cross is a settlement site with evidence of occupation extending back to the Early Iron Age; this brooch is of an early type, with a particular concentration in West Wiltshire and Somerset.

This brooch was examined by Anna Booth (2015) as part of her PhD on penannular brooches in Britain. This study compiled an updated corpus of brooches and was able to identify a number of new types and regional practices. Booth idenifies concentrations of penannulars in South-Western England and East Yorkshire, with her type F being local to Wiltshire and in particular the Avon valley. Penannulars first develop in the early Iron Age, but their use and variety of forms expanded rapisly in the first century AD, and unlike other Brooch forms do not decline in use in the third century, and rather become more popular extending into the fourth century, perhaps as deliberately selected as a "British" accessory in the context of increasingly regional dress styles in the late Roman period.