A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



Fig. 14 

 Part ok Bracelet-clasp, 

 Mildenhall (J) 



7th century. It is of bronze gilt, and belongs to a bracelet-clasp now 

 missing ; a complete specimen from Harrington, in Cambridge Museum, 

 shows the exact relation to the two limbs of the clasp, 

 though the origin and utility of such an addition are 

 not apparent. 



Special notice must also be taken of a brooch (fig. i 5), 

 in Mr. Fenton's collection, from Mildenhall. It is of 

 bronze that has been in contact with iron and received 

 a coating of iron rust, but is intact but for the pin and 

 the square enamel setting at the centre. Traces of the 

 red filling still remain, and birds' heads may still be 

 traced at the end of the swastika, which forms the body 

 of the brooch. Plain rectangular brooches of swastika 

 or fylfot form are not uncommon in the Roman pro- 

 vinces, and one has been found in Brough, Westmorland, 

 but the present specimen is a Teutonic version of the 

 Roman pattern, and is allied to large and richly orna- 

 mented specimens of silver (or with applied silver plates) generally found 

 in Denmark, but also occurring sporadically in Norway, South Sweden, 

 and Mecklenburg," always in the graves of women. The springs on these 

 to give tension to the pin are long spiral coils of wire, but this system had 

 evidently been simplified before the Mildenhall brooch was made, as the 

 two lugs for the hinge are quite close together. As the type lasted a 

 comparatively short time and some specimens 

 are known to belong to the latter part of the 

 3rd century, the Suffolk example may belong 

 to the 4th or possibly the early 5th century, 

 and is in any case one of the earliest Teutonic 

 antiquities in this country. 



The most important find at Mildenhall 

 is undoubtedly the set of enamelled mounts 

 of a bowl in the Cambridge Archaeological 

 Museum. They consist of four escutcheons, 

 three having had hooks attached to their 

 frames and the fourth belonging to the bottom 

 of the bowl ; a bronze ring showing traces 



of wear inside and evidently belonging to one of the chain hooks of the 

 bowl ; narrow strips of bronze with sunk red enamel (mostly wanting) in a 

 fret pattern ; and silver strips notched at their edges that apparently surrounded 

 the escutcheons within the frame of bronze. The bowl to which all these 

 enamelled mounts appertained is unfortunately wanting, but its size and charac- 

 ter are evident from similar discoveries in other parts of England. The best 

 parallel is the set from Barlaston, Staffordshire, found in a warrior's grave and 

 republished in this series.^* The strips with their slanting ends are practically 

 identical, and seem to have been fixed on the outside of a bowl (about 9 in. in 

 diameter) in the three spaces between the hook-escutcheons and just below the 



" S. MuUer, Ordning af Danmarks Oldsager, Jern&lderen, no. 266 ; Almgren, Nordeurofdische Fibe/formen, 

 p. 104, figs. 232-5 ; Montelius, Den nordiske jemilderns Kronologi, p. 240 ; Memoires de la Socu:e des Anliquaires 

 du Nord, 1878, pp. 22, 29. " F.C.H. Staff,, i, 21 1. 



346 



Fig. 15. — Bronze Brooch, once 

 Enamelled, Mildenhall (J) 



