Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T09:16:13.112Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Brooches and Britannia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2016

H.E.M. Cool  and
M.J. Baxter
H.E.M. Cool
Affiliation:
Barbican Research [email protected]
M.J. Baxter
Affiliation:
Nottingham Trent University (Emeritus)[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Regional and temporal patterns in brooch use in Britannia are studied, confirming and challenging ‘received wisdoms’ about ‘regionality’. The complexity of the ‘Fibula Event Horizon’ is brought into sharp focus; a similarly complex and unexplained ‘Fibula Abandonment Horizon’ is also clearly demonstrated. Conclusions are insensitive to assumptions about use-life. Detailed analysis for the family of trumpet brooches casts light on hitherto unappreciated features of ‘regionality’. Comparison with continental data suggests the British temporal patterns may be reflecting a wider north-western province pattern. Under-studied aspects of bias in metal-detected finds and their implications for studies of this kind are noted. The Supplementary Material available online (http://journals.cambridge.org/bri) contains tabular information on the data used in the study and additional analyses that support some of the assertions made in the main text.

Keywords

Roman Britainbroochesmetal-detectingregionalitytemporal variationuse-lifeidentity
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 47 , November 2016 , pp. 71 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2016. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, M., Blick, N., Brindle, T., Evans, T., Fulford, M., Holbrook, N., Richards, J.D., and Smith, A. 2015: The Rural Settlement of Roman Britain: An Online Resource, Archaeological Data Service, York (doi:10.5284/1030449)Google Scholar
Baxter, M.J. 1994: Exploratory Multivariate Analysis in Archaeology, Edinburgh (reprinted with new introduction, New York, 2015)Google Scholar
Baxter, M.J. 2003: Statistics in Archaeology, London Google Scholar
Bayley, J., and Butcher, S. 2004: Roman Brooches in Britain: A Technological and Typological Study based on the Richborough Collection, Society of Antiquaries Research Report 68, London Google Scholar
Bayliss, A., Hines, J., Høilund Nielsen, K., McCormac, G., and Scull, C. 2013: Anglo-Saxon Graves and Grave Goods of the Sixth and Seventh Centuries AD: A Chronological Framework, Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 33, Leeds Google Scholar
Bevan, A. 2012: ‘Spatial methods for analysing large-scale artefact inventories’, Antiquity 86, 492–506 Google Scholar
Booth, A.L. 2014: Reassessing the Long Chronology of the Penannular Brooch in Britain: Exploring Changing Styles, Use and Meaning across a Millennium, unpub. PhD dissertation, University of Leicester, available at http://hdl.haandle.net (Accessed 1 November 2015)Google Scholar
Boyle, A., Jennings, D., Miles, D., and Palmer, S. 1998: The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Butler's Field, Lechlade, Gloucestershire. Volume 1: Prehistoric and Roman Activity and Anglo-Saxon Grave Catalogue, Thames Valley Landscapes Monograph 10, Oxford Google Scholar
Brewer, R.J. 1986: ‘Other objects of bronze’, in Zienkiewicz, J.D., The Legionary Fortress Baths at Caerleon: II the Finds, Cardiff, 172–89Google Scholar
Brickstock, R.J., Cardwell, P.A., Busby, P.A., Cool, H.E.M., Huntley, J.P., Evans, J., Makey, P., and Wilson, P.R. 2007: ‘Catterick Metal-detecting Project 1997–1999’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 79, 65–154 Google Scholar
Brindle, T. 2014: The Portable Antiquities Scheme and Roman Britain, British Museum Research Publication 196, London Google Scholar
Britnell, J.E., Cool, H.E.M., Davies, J.L., Manning, W.H., and Walters, M.J. 1999: ‘Recent discoveries in the vicinity of Castell Collen Roman fort, Radnorshire’, Studia Celtica 33, 33–90 Google Scholar
Castiglione Morelli del Franco, V.C. 1990: ‘Osservazioni su un gruppo di fibule romane da Pompei’, Rivista di Studi Pompeiana 4, 135–44Google Scholar
Catchpole, T. 2007: ‘Excavations at the Sewage Treatment works, Dymock, Gloucestershire, 1995’, Transactions Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 125, 137–219 Google Scholar
Collingwood, R.G., and Richmond, I.A. 1969: The Archaeology of Roman Britain, London Google Scholar
Collins, R. 2010. ‘Brooch use in the 4th to 5th century’, in Collins, R. and Allason-Jones, L., Finds from the Frontier, CBA Research Report 162, York, 64–77 Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 1991: ‘Roman metal hair pins from southern Britain’, Archaeological Journal 147 (1990), 148–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2002: ‘An overview of the small finds from Catterick’, in Wilson, P.R., Cataractonium Roman Catterick and its Hinterland. Excavations and Research, 1958–1997. Part II, CBA Research Report 129, York, 24–43 Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2004: The Roman Cemetery at Brougham, Cumbria: Excavations 1966–1967, Britannia Monograph 21, London Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2008: ‘Objects and vessels of non-ferrous metal, fired clay and glass’, in Booth, P., Bingham, A.-M. and Lawrence, S., The Roman Roadside Settlement at Westhawk Farm, Ashford, Kent, Excavations 1998–9, Oxford, 148–74Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M. 2014: ‘Clothing and identity’, in Millett, M., Revell, L. and Moore, A. (eds) forthcoming, The Oxford Handbook of Roman Britain (Oxford); chapter published online at DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199697713.013.024 Google Scholar
Cool, H.E.M., and Baxter, M.J. 1999: ‘Peeling the onion: an approach to comparing vessel glass assemblages’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 12, 72–100 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cool, H.E.M., and Baxter, M.J. 2002: ‘Exploring Romano-British finds assemblages’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 21, 365–80Google Scholar
Croom, A. 2000: Roman Clothing and Fashion, Stroud Google Scholar
Crummy, N. 2013: ‘Review of Brooches in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain. By D.F. Mackreth’, Britannia 44, 417–18Google Scholar
Eckardt, H. 2005: ‘The social distribution of Roman artefacts: the case of nail-cleaners and brooches in Britain’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 18, 139–60Google Scholar
Eckardt, H., and Crummy, N. 2008: Styling the Body in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain, Monographies Instrumentum 36, Montagnac Google Scholar
Feugère, M. 1985: Les Fibules en Gaule Méridionale de la conquête à la fin du Ve siècle après J.-C., Revue Archéologique de Narbonnaise Supplément 12, Paris Google Scholar
Hattatt, R. 1982: Ancient and Romano-British Brooches, Milbourne Port (re-published 1992, Ipswich)Google Scholar
Hattatt, R. 1985: Iron Age and Roman Brooches, Oxford Google Scholar
Hattatt, R. 1987: Brooches of Antiquity, Oxford Google Scholar
Hattatt, R. 1989: Ancient Brooches and Other Artefacts, Oxford Google Scholar
Henig, M. 2012: ‘Review of Brooches in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain. By D.F. Mackreth’, Antiquaries Journal 92, 469–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, J.D. 2002: ‘Just about the potter's wheel? Using, making and depositing middle and late Iron Age pots in East Anglia’, in Woodward, A. and Hill, J.D., Prehistoric Britain: The Ceramic Basis, Oxford, 143–60Google Scholar
Hingley, R. 2000: Roman Officers and English Gentlemen, London and New York Google Scholar
Hull, M.R., and Hawkes, C.F.C. 1987: Corpus of Ancient Brooches in Britain: pre-Roman Bow Brooches, BAR British Series 168, Oxford Google Scholar
Jackson, R. 2010: Cosmetic Sets of Late Iron Age and Roman Britain, British Museum Research Publication 181, London Google Scholar
Jundi, S., and Hill, J.D. 1998: ‘Brooches and identities in first century AD Britain: more than meets the eye?’, in Forcey, C., Hawthorne, J., and Witcher, R. (eds), TRAC 97: Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference Nottingham 1997, Oxford, 124–37Google Scholar
Kopytoff, I. 1986: ‘The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process’, in Appadurai, A. (ed.), The Social Life of Things, Cambridge, 64–91 Google Scholar
Lockyear, K. 2013: ‘Applying bootstrapped Correspondence Analysis to archaeological data’, Journal of Archaeological Science 40, 4744–53Google Scholar
Mackreth, D.F. 2011: Brooches in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain, Oxford Google Scholar
McIntosh, F. 2011: ‘Regional brooch-types in Roman Britain: evidence from northern Britain’, Archaeologia Aeliana, Series 5, 60, 155–82Google Scholar
McIntosh, F. 2014: ‘The Wirral brooch: the form, distribution and role of a regional Romano-British brooch type’, Archaeological Journal 171, 111–50Google Scholar
Pitts, M. 2014: ‘Reconsidering Britain's first urban communities’, Journal Roman Archaeology 27, 133–73Google Scholar
Pitts, M., and Perring, D. 2006: ‘The making of Britain's first urban landscapes: the case of Late Iron Age and Roman Essex’, Britannia 37, 189–212 Google Scholar
Plouviez, J. 2008: ‘Counting brooches: ways of examining Roman brooch assemblages in London and beyond’, in Clark, J., Cotton, J., Hall, J., Sherris, R. and Swain, H. (eds), Londinium and Beyond, CBA Research Report 156, York, 171–6Google Scholar
Riha, E. 1979: Die römischen Fibeln aus Augst und Kaiseraugst, Forschungen in Augst Band 3, AugstGoogle Scholar
Riha, E. 1994: Die römischen Fibeln aus Augst und Kaiseraugst. Die Neufunde seit 1975, Forschungen in Augst Band 18, AugstGoogle Scholar
Robbins, K. 2014: Portable Antiquities Scheme, A Guide for Researchers, https://finds.org.uk/documents/guideforresearchers.pdf (Accessed 17 April 2015)Google Scholar
Shennan, S.J. 1997: Quantifying Archaeology (2nd edn), Edinburgh Google Scholar
Simpson, G. 1979: ‘Some British and Iberian penannular brooches and other early types in the Rhineland and the “Decumates Agri”’, Antiquaries Journal 59, 319–41Google Scholar
Simpson, G., and Blance, B. 1998: ‘Do brooches have ritual associations?’, in Bird, J. (ed.), Form and Fabric; Studies in Rome's Material Past in Honour of B.R. Hartley, Oxbow Monograph 80, Oxford, 267–79Google Scholar
Snape, M.E. 1993: Roman Brooches from North Britain, BAR British Series 235, Oxford CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swift, E. 2000: Regionality in Dress Accessories in the Late Roman West, Monographies Instrumentum 11, Millau Google Scholar
Wild, J.P. 1968: ‘Clothing in the North-West provinces of the Roman Empire’, Bonner Jahrbücher 68, 166–240 Google Scholar
Willis, S. 2013: ‘The later Iron Age and Roman finds assemblage’, in Willis, S. and Carne, P. (eds), A Roman Villa on the Edge of Empire. Excavations at Ingleby Barwick, Stockton on Tess, 2003–04, CBA Research Report 170, York, 153–64Google Scholar
Worrell, S., and Pearce, J. 2014: ‘Roman Britain in 2013. II. Finds reported under the Portable Antiquities Scheme’, Britannia 45, 397–429 Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Cool and Baxter supplementary material

Cool and Baxter supplementary material 1

Download Cool and Baxter supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 3.7 MB