File:DSragonesque or S Shaped Brooch from Staniwells (FindID 387231).jpg

Brooch. Cast S-Shaped or Dragonesque Openwork Brooch. A curvilinear egg-waisted plate with a pelta-derived appendage at each end; one of the peltae bears a pair of eyes; the other has one eye, and has probably lost a second. A separate round-section pin, now bent, expands to achieve a rectangular section where it is wrapped around the upper body or neck constriction. Billeted decoration of the pin is here confined between border ribs, and might suggest it to represent a replacement or repair. The eyes are each defined by a hemispherical boss surrounded by a finely incised gutter; the position of the bosses is marked by a concave dimple on the reverse of the brooch. Comparable brooches from Dragonby and elsewhere south in North Linconshire bear extensive enamel in compartments, here lacking, though the appendages at each ends of such brooches are more poorly modelled than here; they are ascribed to the 2^nd century. The pin is now held in position by green twine.

Length: 47.62mm, Width: 35.70mm, Thickness (of plate): 1.38mm, Weight: 7.7gms.

Suggested date: Early Roman, 100-200.