File:Early Medieval Great Square Headed Brooch (FindID 148004).jpg

English: ***Check findspot against UKDFD*** An early-medieval cast copper-alloy brooch fragment. The bow of an Anglo-Saxon great square headed brooch, with partial remains of the head and footplate. The bow is damaged with a transverse break on each side, the pronounced ridge along the centre of the bow prevented the break extending completely across the bow. The bow is virtually flat in profile, most likely due to post deposition activity, as the profile of bows on great square headed brooches is usually more 'D' shaped. The surviving fragment is 50.57mm long, 23.01mm wide and 9.16mm thick.

The wide bow is decorated with a wide vertical ridge along the centre, which is particularly worn at the apex of the bow. A plain relief border encompases the whole bow. To either side of the central ridge are two fields of worn stylized animal ornamentation, seperated by a horizontal band of 3 narrow grooves. The partial remains of the inner headplate is decorated with a worn human facemask motif which is found in Hines Groups III and V. There are two integral pin lugs on the reverse of the headplate, with iron corrosion between as all that survives of the pin. The worn catchplate survives on the reverse of the incomplete footplate. The decoration on the surviving section of footplate is completely worn.

The closest parallel to this bow with a facemask motif on the inner headplate is Linton Heath 9, see Hines figure 19 (d) for bow detail and plate 14 (b) for the complete brooch. This would place this brooch in Hines Group III, however without the head and footplate designs this allocation to Group III cannot be certain. Great square headed brooches date from the 6th century AD, from circa 500AD to 570AD.