An Anglo-Saxon Disc Brooch from Northamptonshire

Abstract

A small gilt-bronze disc brooch was found at Little Houghton, Northants., in 1957, a surface find on a Roman site, and was acquired by Northampton Museum (pl. xv b, fig. 1). It is a thin disc, diameter 2·5 cm., tapering at the border, with remains of pin holder and catch at the back and shallow pattern in relief on the front. The gilding has rubbed off the higher parts of the pattern, and has disappeared entirely in places where the brooch has been damaged and bent, possibly by fire. The ornament consists of two Style II animals, identical except for the shape of the jaw. They are S-shaped, turning round to bite their own backs; the body continues directly into the angle of a back leg which crosses the body and ends at the border in the rudiments of a foot; a front limb shoots forward to interlock with the hind curve of the other animal; the head is an eye framed by a right-angle; in one case the upper jaw passes below the body and the lower jaw is short and curves only slightly outwards; in the other the upper jaw again runs below the body, and the lower jaw swings round and seems to meet the upper jaw behind in a complete loop. There is damage at this point, however, and on analogous evidence it is quite likely that the lower jaw did not join the upper, but swept on independently.