File:Early Saxon square-headed brooch (FindID 128800).jpg

English: Incomplete Early Saxon headplate and upper bow of great square-headed brooch, in two pieces. No gilding is extant. Apart from some minor damage, all breaks are not recent, that running diagonally across the headplate being less old than those around the edges and across the bow. The condition of the decorated surfaces is quite fresh and much small-scale detail is visible. It is unlikely that the object has been moving around in cultivated soil for very long.

The headplate frame consists of (originally eight) outward facing masks in high relief, with details of hair and cheeks enhanced by engraving. Alignments of V-shaped stamps between engraved lines run around the outside of the frame. Two small holes between masks, on the top and side, are the result of extremely thin casting, and not of damage or wear. Ovoid moulded masks with similarly engraved hair make up the upper corner(s). A symmetrical arrangement of two interlaced Style I animals fill the second panel within a frame decorated with punched dots. The flat inner panel is engraved with two rectangles within extra lines on both sides and below, with the resultant image resembling an open book. At the top of the bow, its median and lateral ribs are conjoined by transverse mouldings. These and the tops of the ribs are emphasised with engraved grooves, all set vertically apart from on one moulding where they are transverse. Double pin lug with remains of iron pin on reverse. Leeds (1949) Group B3, Hines (1997) Group I. The masks on the headplate are comparable to those on Chessel Down (Isle of Wight) grave 60 and fragments from Hampnett (Gloucestershire) cremation D (Leeds nos.79 and 81; Hines plate 7b and c), while the flatness of the inner panel is reminiscent of that on a brooch from Fairford (Gloucestershire) grave 20. This is the first brooch of this Group to have been found in East Anglia. The distribution of the Group is most concentrated in the upper Thames and Warwickshire Avon valleys.

48 x 68mm. Made in the years around 500 AD.