Description

Summary: 1 bronze penannular brooch, from Rushall Down, Rushall, Wiltshire.

Research results

A Late Iron Age to Romano-British copper alloy penannular brooch, found on Rushall Down, and of a type whose distribution is concentrated in the South-West, in Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, and the Severn basin. This was a form in use between 100 BC and as late as AD 700, but appears to have been most common in the first century AD and early fourth century. This brooch was a chance find, and its precise find spot is unknown, however other Roman-era activity is known in the vicinity of Rushall Down, including a Late Roman settlement.

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.