Langton Down

40 sf. 339 The plain spring-case is set off from the bow by a plain cross-moulding. The bow has three sets of triple mouldings, the central element being beaded, separated one from another by flutes. The sides of the bow splay out at top and bottom. At the upper end an extra moulding has been introduced into the right-hand flute, there being only a slight trace on the left. The catch-plate is trapezoidal with a small, almost square, hole.

 


339

A Langton Down type brooch of length 43mm. The brooch has a plain head enclosing an iron spring and pin. A very flat bow joins the head at a curved cross rib and is decorated with three groups of triple ribs, the central rib of each group being knurled. Two cavetto mouldings separate these three groups of ribs and an extra rib divides the right hand cavetto moulding for a short distance from the head. The bow has traces of white metal plating along the ribs and the grooves which they define, and fans out towards the bottom in typical Langton Down style. The catch-plate, which extends 19mm up the length of the bar, has a triangular perforation. Hull's 21B. 1st Century AD.


41 sf. 274 The spring case had a panel on the front containing lines running obliquely away from the top of the bow. There is too much damage to see the full form of the panel. The moulding across the top of the bow is beaded, but the three triple mouldings down the bow were possibly plain, but there might be a trace of beading. Only the very top survives.

 



274

 

The head and the top of the bow of a large Langton Down brooch. The spring case contains the remains of a spring of at least ten coils with no evidence of an axis bar. The wide flat bow is decorated with four flutes between five ribs, themselves fluted, these flutes showing very faint traces of black enamel inlay. The outermost ribs are soon lost as the bow narrows. There is a knurled cross rib at the junction of the bow and the head, above which, the spring case is decorated with fine incised lines fanning out from a central point. It is possible that the area above the incised line decoration was originally decorated with two and perhaps four ring and pellet features. The visible evidence is by no means conclusive but there is just enough of an observable pattern in the corrosion products to be worthy of note. 30 to 60 AD.


42 sf. 79 The spring-case is plain. The bow has, beneath a plain cross-moulding, a plain curved surface into which are set tear-shaped cells for niello. These are arranged as pairs across the bow with, at the top, four placed to radiate upwards and each pair here is capped by a peltate cell The catch-plate appears to have been framed and has a large flange across the top.

 

 



79

A Langton Down variant brooch of length 35mm. A spring of eight coils is still present inside a plain housing. A curved rib separates the head from the bow which is narrow and triangular in section. The top of the bow is decorated with four niello or enamel petals, one surviving, with two double intersecting crescents above. The straight length of bow is decorated with nine pairs of petals in a chevron pattern. These are either empty or with decomposed fill. The catch-plate which begins 15mm from the tip of the bow, is broken, but would appear to have had a triangular or trapezoidal perforation. These brooches were a Continental type. Some came to Britain before 43 AD and their use lasted for a few decades afterwards. See Hattat's IARB No. 271 and Colchester - Hawkes and Hull 1947 pl XCV108. 1st Century AD.

The beading on Brooch 40 tends to be earlier than the straight-forward reeding found on Brooch 41, discounting the possibility that there had been any beading on that, The only place where this can be demonstrated is in the King Harry Lane cemetery: Beaded - Phase 1, G97.5, G202.8, G287.5-7, G309.5; Phase2, G255.2, G289.3, G361.4; Phase 3, G68.6, G117.5, G370.4; Reeded - Phase 1, G71.3-4, G413.3-4; Phase3, G41.3, G47.4, G156.2-4, G370.5. The difficulty with the report is that there is no guarantee that faint traces of beading were always represented on the drawings. Be that as it may, the message is fairly clear, the beaded examples crowd the earlier parts of the phasing, but the reeding-only group is best represented in Phase 3. Therefore, the likely dating for Brooch 40 is before 40/45 and for Brooch 41 before 50/55. As for Brooch 42, there is little to go on other than the presence of a flange across the top of the catch-plate which, as it occurs on the Nertomarus which cannot be given an early date on the basis of available dating, should date to c.25-55/60?