File:1st century Roman brooch (FindID 70563).jpg

English: Incomplete copper alloy Romano-British ‘Colchester’ two piece brooch. One wing of this brooch is complete whilst the other is truncated. They are semicylindrical and plain. Behind the head is a transverse lug with two circular perforations. The holes are now blocked with the remains of the spring chord. The spring and pin are entirely missing but a fraction of the spring coil survives next to one side of the lug, and suggests that it was a six coiled spring. On the head of the brooch is a short crest. The bow of the brooch is flattened and semicircular in section. The bow is decorated with a centrally grooved line that diminishes half way along its length. The bow tapers towards the foot which is complete without a foot knob. The curled catchplate is intact, with a triangular perforation. The ‘curl’ is set at a sharp right angle to the rest of the catch. The patina of the object is mid green with bright green corrosion on the remains of the spring coil. The brooch is 45.16mm long , 15.3mm wide across the wings, 4.16mm wide across the bow, 2.24mm thick and weighs 3.42g. Brooches of this type date from between 50-70AD. A similar example can be seen in Hattatt 1985, figure 12, number 259.