File:Early Medieval square headed brooch (FindID 805808).jpg

English: A fragment of a gilded copper alloy Anglo Saxon great square-headed brooch, dating to the6th century AD. The fragment consists of part of the foot and a fragment of bow.

A raised line runs down the centre of the foot, forming (in Hines's terminology) a footplate bar. This is formed from three parallel strands, with the central strand thinner than the two flanking strands. To either side of this bar is a triangular field, the footplate inner panel. Each of these has similar decoration of three U-shaped relief Style I elements, perhaps legs. These triangular fields are set within narrow borders, which are then surrounded by a footplate frame (again following Hines's terminology; Hines 1997, 5). The footplate frame curves towards an apex and then flares to end in circular side lobes. Only one of these lobes now survives, and this has been bent backwards resulting in a crack. The lobe is decorated with a drop-shaped human face or mask, with narrow chin below an unclear indentation for the mouth. A bold straight nose tapers from its square end and then splits to form brows that curl around the pellet eyes; the brow is smoothly domed. The mask is set within a ridged circular border. The break that has removed the other lobe is worn.

Above the triangular fields and footplate frame are the footplate upper borders. These are decorated with Style I, each having a single profile animal. The footplate frame turns into the neck of the animal, and the headframe and eye can be seen at the end of the neck. The headframe has a curl at its lower end. Where there should be jaws or a beak, there is another element which appears to be a detached leg and foot; there are at least two other unidentifiable elements within the field.

The rest of the foot is missing. At the top of the fragment, the brooch extends into the bow which would have attached the foot to the head plate; this now terminates in a worn break. The surviving stub of bow has a wide central ridge and a narrower ridge along each edge.

The reverse is undecorated, and has the catch still in place on the reverse of the foot. This consists of a rectangular piece of copper alloy which has been curved round to hold the pin, this has been damaged and is now further bent. There is a ridge running down the centre of the reverse, below the catchplate, which seems to be an uncleaned mould line from the casting process.

The fragment is gilded, most of the gilding is in the recesses of the moulded decoration. The piece has a dark green patina. The fragment measures 41.9mm in length, 51.8mm in width, 3.2mm in thickness and weighs 31.22g.

Similar square headed brooches include a Hines Group I from grave 20 at Fairford (MacGregor and Bolick 1993, 112, 13.1), which also has the footplate bar, the masks in the side lobes and Style I beast heads in the footplate upper borders, although the details of these beasts are different. Similar but more complete brooches on the database include BERK-E0FC63 and FAKL-BD0AB1. It is difficult to allocate a Hines Group to an incomplete brooch, but it seems likely that it may be a Group I.

The type is relatively early and can be argued to originate out of Scandinavian influences on particularly 'Saxon' areas (Hines 1997, 32). It dates from the first half of the 6th century.