Early Anglo-Saxon Applied Disc Brooches. Part II: in England

Abstract

SummaryThe development of the earliest Germanic applied disc brooches is followed from their beginning in the Elbe valley to the fifth century in England. Third-century types constructed with rivets on a flat background were produced in the Elbe valley, giving way in the fourth century to a type soldered on to a concave base, and they spread to the middle and lower Elbe valley, to Holland, the Rhineland, Belgium, and northern France, increasing in numbers at the end of the fourth century, but not surviving the fifth century. The main designs were concentric circles, star, floriate cross, scrolls, and animal ornament.The series goes on in England without any break in continuity of form or decoration, and the earliest types belong to the fifth century, mainly the first half. With the densest concentration in the Upper Thames area, they are otherwise mostly distributed south of the Thames with some along the Icknield Way. As they are associated with a post-Roman stage of metalwork, the Quoit Brooch Style, they must indicate Germanic settlements, no doubt mercenary in the earliest stages.