A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



important feature is the disc attached to the front of the bow. A well- 

 known pattern, common in the Baltic island of Gothland, is not truly 

 parallel, being later in date and quite distinct as regards outline and 

 ornamentation. Comparison is best made with unpublished brooches from 

 Finningham and Ipswich, Suffolk, and a damaged example from Brooke, 

 Norfolk, now in the British Museum. In spite of its appearance, the 

 last was probably not burnt at the time of burial, as amber beads from 

 the same site are quite intact ; but it seems to have been intentionally 

 damaged before interment, and only the square head and bow with its 

 attached disc remain. The ornamentation on all four is similar, and the 

 type was evidently well established in this country. Below the bow may 

 be distinguished animal heads with open jaws, familiar in this position 

 on such brooches in northern Europe from the opening of the fifth century ; 

 but the rest of the surface exhibits little that suggests animal forms of 

 any kind. The three pear-shaped lobes and the two triangular patches 

 near the centre of the foot owe their form and position to the existence 

 of garnet settings on earlier and better examples of the type (as from 

 Sarre and Herpes). The same may be said of the two small cones on 

 the head (just above the junction with the bow), and of the lobes in the 

 upper corners, between which is a row of spectacle-ornament that is 

 generally derived from the human face, but is more probably a remote 

 descendant of Roman arcading. 



The inner band is divided into square panels, some of which enclose 

 the eye of the characteristic animal of early Teutonic art, represented in 

 the present instance merely by a dot with two or three curved lines 

 beside it that may represent the neck of the animal. 1 A single reference 

 will suffice for evidence of this derivation ; and lastly, attention may be 

 directed to the S-shaped engraving near the centre of the brooch-head, 

 as well as the rope pattern of the central disc, both reminiscent of the 

 scrolls so frequent in Roman work of the fourth century. 8 



Specimens with a disc on the bow, evidently belonging to the same 

 parent stock, but differing in details, are published from all three Scandi- 

 navian countries, and a remarkable specimen with an almost triangular 

 base was found at Bifrons, near Canterbury. Brooches of similar dimen- 

 sions with a hole in the bow, evidently for affixing a disc by means of a 

 rivet, are known from Bury St. Edmund's and Faversham, while a smaller 

 example has been found in Kent. 3 It is fairly certain that all these 

 belong to the northern area of Europe, as contrasted with Bohemia, 

 Bavaria, and Switzerland, where early Teutonic antiquities of quite 

 distinct character are frequently met with. It was along the latter route 

 that the culture of the barbarians spread westward to Gaul and Britain, 

 south of the Thames ; while further north, in the midlands and East 

 Anglia, the North German and Scandinavian element was predominant. 

 Whether this fact explains the prevalence of cremation in the area indi- 



1 B. Salin, Die altgermamsche Thierornamentik, p. 326. 



1 Ibid. pp. 1702. 



* Arch, xli, pi. six, fig. i (Stowting) 



2OO 



