File:Dolphin brooch (profile) (FindID 441067).jpg

English: Incomplete cast copper alloy Roman dolphin-type hinged brooch with pairs of leaf-like mouldings down each side of the bow. The pin is missing but the iron hinge remains at the centre of the back of the wide cross-bar, which is decorated with three sets of incised rings on each side and still contains the iron spindle. There are also two incised lines running centrally down the length of the bow from the top of the head towards the foot, which is missing. There are two foliage-like pinched mouldings on either side of the bow. The larger moulding near the head of the bow on either side has a recessed area around a protruding pellet, creating the look of an eye, which may have been enamelled to highlight the effect. There are similar details that are more clearly defined, where some of the enamel survives, on another brooch from St Goran parish (CORN-0226E2). The back of the bow is hollow and has a rectangular aperture which tapers as it runs the length of the bow, and yet the weight of the brooch is almost double that of a similarly incomplete example from Cornwall, CORN-FE1306. The profile and pinched mouldings are similar to Dolphin-type hinged brooches, such as illustrated in Hattatt (2000) on page 299, Fig.158, No.1510, but this style of moulding combined with incised linear bands can also be found on the Wilsford Type of T-shaped brooch, on page 302, Fig.161, No.915, which both date from the 1st century AD. Local comparanda include an example of a dolphin-type brooch from the excavations at Carvossa, Probus, identified by Butcher in Carlyon, CAJ No.26, 1987, p.122, Fig.7, No.19, which is dated to c.AD 75-100.