This radiate brooch was excavated from the north-south slot through the midden in the final week of the dig
Happy New Year to all the Lyminge Archaeological Project supporters, volunteers, students and all of you that follow our work and our blog! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are looking forward to what 2015 will bring for you and for archaeology!
Our seasonal gift to you all is this wonderful find from the 2014 dig. I wrote about the excavation of a miniature radiate-headed brooch from one of the transects we dug through the ‘blob’ in this post earlier this summer.
When it came up it was clearly well-preserved and in one piece, with decoration, but it wasn’t possible to tell exactly what the decorative elements involved, as you can see in this image to the right (which can be enlarged if you click on the photo).
It has now been cleaned and conserved by Dana Goodburn-Brown from CSI: Sittingbourne and looks absolutely fantastic, as you can see below!
A miniature radiate headed brooch excavated from the midden featured known as ‘the blob’ and conserved by Dana Goodburn-Brown.
The detail has preserved beautifully well, and the brooch itself, barring its iron pin, is in near mint condition now that it has been cleaned up. We now clearly have a miniature radiate-headed brooch decorated with Style 1 animal art. Looking at the head of the brooch you can see a stylised animal with a large eye squashed into the available space.
This brooch dates from between AD 510/20-560/70, putting it firmly in the 6th century and fitting in very nicely with our glass and other finds from the midden area. There are parallels for this brooch quite near by, at the Buckland, Dover (Kent) cemetery and the cemetery at Bifrons, Patrixbourne (Kent). Finding a brooch like this in a settlement and even potentially industrial context is extremely exciting indeed.
A very Happy New Year from all at the Lyminge Archaeological Project!