Some British and Iberian Penannular Brooches and Other Early Types in the Rhineland and the ‘Decumates Agri’

Abstract

SummaryA re-examination of Fowler Aa, B, and C penannulars leads to a reassessment of omega brooches at Numantia. The inception of particular types of penannulars could be before 75 B.C., certainly before 27, and they continue through Augustan–Claudian times with Aucissa and ‘Hod Hill’-type brooches. The distributions of certain types in pre-Roman Britain, based on Mr. Hull's researches, and of two groups of factory-made brooches and others only found in the area of early Roman conquest in Britain, are contemporary with early omega brooches here. There is no evidence for taking any of these forms into the Flavian period, and the supposed basis for dating some of them into the second century is found wanting. Instead of associating old finds of all these early types with certain forts on the Limes, from A.D. 90, or later, it is suggested that there is evidence for Germani or Celts at these places long before the Province of Upper Germany was formed and the ‘decumates agri’ were taken into it.