File:Early Medieval Great Square-headed brooch (FindID 966019-1068927).jpg

English: An incomplete and decorated early medieval copper alloy Great Square-headed brooch, dating to c. AD 500-570. The brooch consists of the head, the bow, the catchplate, the spring and part of the pin. There are signs of guilding.

The head plate is rectangular in plan and sub-rectangular in cross-section. The head of the brooch remains complete to the width of 19.9mm and length of c.14.6mm.

The bow protrudes from the head and curves forwards and outwards from the front of the plate making it C shaped in profile. The bow is c.18mm in length, 10.4mm in width and is oval in cross-section.

What remains of the foot plate of the brooch continues from the bow and strongly indicates that the foot was kite shaped. It is also sub rectangular in cross-section. The remaining length is c.18.2 at the longest point on the right-hand side of the bow. The initial width of the foot is 15.9mm and narrows gradually to c.12mm at the lowest point.

The thickness of the brooch, measured from the edge of the catchplate to the top of the bow (as though the pin were remaining) is 15.2mm.

On the reverse of the head plate there is a projecting oval knop. This knop Is pierced by a small hole, through which is threaded a copper alloy axis bar. Around this bar is a coiled spring of the same material, with one coil on its left-hand side, which then loops under the pin before returning to the axis bar on the right side and producing two more coils., The inner coil on the right side then straightens out into a pin before terminating in an old break. The catchplate is a D shaped in profile and project from the back of the foot plate for 4.3 mm. It is sub-rectangular in cross-section and plain.

The front of the brooch has chipped and moulded decoration. The upper plate has a border made up of incised radiating lines, surrounding a plain border which is 1.7mm wide. Within this border there are incised and chipped geometric patterns representing portions of zoomorphic subjects. These could possibly be 3 legs, seen in the top left, top right and bottom right corners, with a face on the lower left corner of the plate. Running down the centre of the brooch, from the tip of the bow to the bottom of the remaining foot plate is a rectangular ridge c. 2.3mm wide which projects 0.2mm outwards. Running either side of this ridge along the bow is a zigzag pattern formed through chipping triangular recesses in the bow. The upper edges of the outer corners of the foot appear to have animals, possibly birds of prey, identified by a spiralled circular eye, and curved beak. The right side of the footplate appears to have two sets of wide-open jaws just above the break. The exact details of the animals on the footplate of the brooch however, are difficult to define, as the amount of horizontal patterns hinder the identification.