File:Anglo-Saxon Small Square-headed brooch (FindID 544027).jpg

English: An incomplete cast copper-alloy small square headed brooch of Anglo-Saxon date. It is missing the separately cast iron pin due to old breaks, and has been slightly bent due to post-depositional damage, but is otherwise complete. The brooch has a flat, rectangular headplate on the back face of which is an integrally cast rectangular pin lug with circular aperture and the corroded remains of an iron pin. The front face has decoration comprising a raised, inner rectangular border surrounded by an outer border of punched concentric semi-circles around the edge of the head. At the centre of the headplate, inside the inner border, is a curved ridge at the junction with the bow, above which is a single transverse ridge below a transverse band of multiple short vertical grooves. The bow itself is rectangular in form, triangular in section with a curved profile and vertical mid rib. This extends to the foot, which is flat, tapering and pear-shaped in form. On the outer edge of the front face is a border of punched circles or annulets, within which is a raised inner border that runs from the base of the bow and traces the outline of the foot, creating a central decorative panel. This central panel has chip carved Style I decoration that is symmetrical in form and comprises opposing double-stranded curved bands at the top corners, each containing a small circular pellet at the inside of the curve. Between and slightly below the two curves is a lozenge. These decorative elements are perhaps zoomorphic in nature, possibly intended to be heads or eyes(?). On the back face of the foot is in integrally cast catchplate that is rectangular in form with outer edge that has been folded back onto itself to produce a U-shaped profile. The entire front face has the remains of relatively thick gilding. The brooch measures 36.82mm in length, 12.95mm in width (at foot; 12.64mm at head), 5.26mm in width at bow, 2.44mm in thickness and 3.35g in weight.

This is a Small Square-headed brooch of Anglo-Saxon date. It finds parallels in published examples from the Ashmolean (MacGregor and Bolick, 1993: nos. 14.3-14.7) and from examples recorded through the PAS (e.g. KENT-FED666, IOW-D94975). These indicate a probable 6th century AD date for the current example, c.500-575 AD.