Penannular brooch

Object/Artifact

Trimontium Museum

Image © National Museums Scotland

Name/Title

Penannular brooch

Entry/Object ID

X.FRA 806

Description

Penannular brooch of bronze, with terminals decorated with blue enamel and silver inlay, from the Roman site at Newstead (Trimontium), late 1st or 2nd century AD The large penannular ring has blunt expanded terminals decorated with a dog-tooth ornament and a broken-backed curve inlaid with silver and enamel. The pin is slightly curved with a flat and expanded tip and is free to rotate around most of the ring.

Use

Used as both a fashion accessory and a symbol of status. When worn, cloth was slipped over the pin, and the ring turned to hold the pin and cloth fast.

Context

Found in the upper levels of the pit in the Principia. This brooch is an elaborate example of a native type which originated before the Roman occupation. It may have been made when the style was going out of fashion, replaced by other forms of penannular brooches.

Collection

National Museums Scotland

Acquisition

Accession

X.FRA 806

Made/Created

Date made

68 - 200

Time Period

1st - 2nd century

Ethnography

Cultural Region

Continent

Europe

Culture/Tribe

Romano British

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Secondary Object Term

Brooch

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Pin, Clothing

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Clothing Accessories

Nomenclature Class

Clothing

Nomenclature Category

Category 03: Personal Objects

Getty AAT

Concept

brooches

Other Names

Name Type

Previous Accesssion Number

Other Name

II.15.300

Dimensions

Length

2 in

Diameter

1-3/4 in

Material

Bronze, Enamel, Silver

Color

Green, Black

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

James Curle

Notes

Excavator

Related Publications

Publication

A Roman Frontier Post and Its People

Web Links and URLs

National Museums Scotland weblink to object, Canmore weblink to Newstead, "A Frontier Post and Its People" James Curle, p.326-327, Pl.LXXXVIII Fig 7

Provenance

Provenance Detail

1905 - 1911 Excavations

Acquisition Method

Found

Research Notes

Research Type

Researcher

Person

James Curle

Notes

"Perhaps the most interesting of the series of penannular brooches is one which came from the upper levels of the pit in the Principia (Plate LXXXVIII., Fig. 7). The exact period at which this pit was filled in is uncertain, but it was probably open till the end of the final occupation. In all probability, therefore, we are justified in attributing the brooch to the second half of the second century. It is of bronze, 2 inches by 1¾ inches in diameter. The pin is 2¾ inches in length and flattened towards the point. A brooch with a long pin, not unlike it, was included in the finds from Camelon,[2] and there is another in the National Museum from the Culbin Sands, Morayshire. The most interesting features are, however, the broadening out of the ends and their decoration. On one side the latter consists of a narrow panel of dog-tooth ornament filled in with blue enamel and silver. On the opposite side is a small inlaid pattern in silver of an entirely different character. It is altogether very slight, but the curved design at once recalls the decoration of the wooden bowl from the Glastonbury Lake village now in the British Museum,[3] and thus shows the influence of Celtic art." - "A Roman Frontier Post and Its People", p. 327