File:Early medieval bird on cross brooch (FindID 155444).jpg

English: An incomplete copper-alloy brooch of cross-on-bird form. The brooch is in the shape of a bird with a cross projecting from the centre of its back; the rear third of the bird is now missing due to an old break. The bird is depicted in profile facing right and is cast; the front is rounded and decorated and the reverse is hollow, with no traces of decoration or any attachment devices.

The bird has a rounded head with a large circular ring-and-dot eye. The beak curves downwards and tapers to a point, and has a groove down its centre. The body and neck are stocky and the wing is folded; the feathers are depicted by grooves. There is an integral rectangular loop with a circular hole through its centre projecting from the centre of the underside of the bird, perhaps representing its feet. The cross projects upwards from the centre of the bird's back, and one of its side arms is joined to the back of the head. This cross is of Greek shape and decorated with pairs of grooves running longitudinally along each arm; in the centre of the cross there is another cross-shaped incised motif.

Two other incomplete cross-on-bird brooches (KENT-9F6987 of silver, and SUSS-44F203 of gilded silver) can be found on the PAS database. Other cross-on-bird brooches made from copper-alloy are recorded on the PAS database at SF-7B3CA5 and BERK-5DED86. Cross-on-bird brooches are a relatively uncommon type, with finds recorded by Pedersen (1999) from Denmark (fig. 11b), England (fig. 19c), Germany (figs. 20 and 22) and France (fig. 21). Their date-range is thought to be 800-1100 (Pedersen 1999, 64). Also see A. Gannon (2003) The Iconography of Early Anglo-Saxon Coins, pp. 114-5, where it is argued that one of these brooches (from Berinsfield) carries a fledgling rather than a cross on its back.

Anna Gannon comments on the Sussex example that "Whilst some of them can be understood to follow in the tradition of bird-shaped Germanic ornaments, the addition of Christian symbols makes their apotropaic and devotional character plain." The drooping shape of this bird's beak perhaps makes it more likely to be an eagle (symbolic of the Resurrection and St John) than a dove (symbol of the Holy Spirit).