Description

Summary: A La Tene I plate brooch, equal-ended and two bronze bits containing the remans of an iron pin, from Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire.

Research results

A Middle Iron Age plate brooch loaned to the Museum by collector Richard Hattatt, reportedly found in Maiden Bradley, in the South West of Wiltshire. The probable Romano-British temple and iron age settlement site at Cold Kitchen Hill lies close to the border of Maiden Bradley. This site has produced a large number of Iron Age brooches and it is likely that the brooch was claimed to have been found in one of the surrounding fields.

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.