File:Brooch (FindID 57947).jpg

English: A probable foot fragment of an early Anglo-Saxon long brooch. This fragment is roughly square in shape, measuring c18mm by c18mm in size. Its edges appear to to be incomplete due to old breaks, which are now worn. The front face of this fragment is decorated with two central lozenge shaped grooves (one inside the other), and a spiral motif in each corner of the fragment surrounding these. The grooves appeared to be filled with traces of a white deposit of some kind. The back face is flat, rough to the touch and undecorated.

It seems most likely that this fragment was part of the foot terminal of a small long or possibly square headed brooch. However no parallel could be found exactly like it, although similar fragments have been discovered in Suffolk with similar decoration these have all had the remains of a catch plate on the back face (therefore indicating more conclusively that they are indeed part of the foot of an early Anglo-Saxon long brooch).

This fragment was discovered in association with other early Anglo-Saxon long brooch fragments and other artefacts and was probably deposited originally as part of an early Anglo-Saxon grave. Helen Geake writes: An alternative identification for this object is that of a Merovingian plate brooch. A similar item is recorded on the PAS database at SF2151, although this record is currently missing its image(s). Another example is in the Ashmolean Museum's collection, published in MacGregor 1997 no. 59.3. This identification is not without problems, though, as the object should have pin lug and catchplate on the reverse to be identified as a brooch - and this has neither.