File:Ansate brooch (FindID 871683).jpg

English: A cast incomplete and worn Early Medieval Ansate also known as a 'caterpillar' brooch, fitting Thörle's group IV (Weetch Ansate type IV), dating c.AD 650 to AD850.

Description: The brooch is of symmetrical bow form with square terminals that are slightly wider the bow. The bow is angular rather than rounded. Catchplate and pin arrangement is of standard type having a double, H-shaped pin-lug and curved catchplate. The pin survives only as a rust around the pin lug and catchplate. The upper surface of the brooch has incised decoration consisting of a diamond formed of four incised lines on the terminal knops and the apex of the bow. There are additional line incised on each side of the bow flanking the apex consisting of poorly executed lines six on the upper side and four on the lower. Each terminal knop flares slightly prior to the bow and the apex flares at each end creating flared concave sides. The entire brooch is mottled dark to light green save for the patches of orange brown rust on the rear of the brooch. The bottom knop has either a corroded hole, casting floor or other damage through it and the top knop is no longer near symmetrical due to abrasion

Measurements: 38.55mm long, 9.08mm wide, 11.71mm thick and 6.2g in weight.

Discussion: This brooch belongs to a well attested, although small group of Ansate brooches (Thörle group IV/Weetch Ansate type IV) most common from continental Europe, a small number are known from Britain mostly from East Anglia (Weetch 2014, 149-150). This example is the most southerly English outlier at the time of writing.