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The Origins and Development of the Penannular Brooch in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Elizabeth Fowler
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Extract

This paper is in a sense a by-product of a detailed study of ‘Dark Age’ metalwork and grew out of the realization that any interpretation of post-Roman history depends on an understanding of the archaeology of Roman and Iron Age Britain. For too long, the post-Roman world has been regarded as separate from the preceding periods, and has been seen mainly through aesthetic spectacles. Recent studies of the pottery of the period have to some extent corrected the perspective hitherto largely based on subjective and even nationalistic examinations of the better known art and metalwork. To make a new and comparable survey of the metalwork seemed worthwhile, and in doing this attention was focused on the ordinary, and common, pieces of metalwork which have been overshadowed by the more magnificent and highly decorated pieces. It became evident that in many ways the Roman occupation was not all important but was merely a minor factor in the development of material culture, and that this was particularly true of the Military Province of Britain. The specialist nature of so much of Romano-British archaeology has tended to obscure the continuity of Iron Age culture. It was felt that the selection of one or more pieces of metalwork might illustrate this as well as providing a background for the achievements in metalwork and design in the ‘Dark Ages’.

The penannular brooch was chosen as the ‘type-fossil’ for this study because it was the typical and characteristic dress ornament of the Celtic post-Roman world, was equally common in Romano-British contexts and seemed to be native to these islands. A complete run through from Iron Age to Early Christian times has thus been obtained, and it is hoped that deductions drawn from a study of the penannular brooches may be paralleled and applied to other metalwork of the period and so allow general conclusions to be drawn. A more personal reason for selecting the penannular brooch was a desire to investigate the reasons for such a bewildering variety of contradictory opinions on the origin and development of the type.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 26 , December 1960 , pp. 149 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1960

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References

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page 150 note 1 This work was done as part of a B. Litt. thesis in the University of Oxford. My grateful thanks are due to the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and to Professor Stuart Piggott and Professor Christopher Hawkes for all their help and encouragement. Although it is impossible to name individually the numerous museum authorities and friends who have helped with the compilation of the corpus and in other ways, I should like to express my gratitude to them all.

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page 158 note 2 Dr Ilid Anthony has informed me that the lack of stratification in the ‘castros’ is due to the fact that the bed-rock is near the surface and that the inhabitants seem to have swept out their debris. This means that few ‘castros’ have been found to have ‘archaeological’ levels.

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