- Museum number
- ML.1544
- Description
-
Copper alloy and iron brooch in two fragments: a bead of coral on the elaborate foot; twenty-coil spring; half now separate, with the pin on an iron bar, with coil-like washers at either end.
- Production date
- 600 BC - 450 BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 16 millimetres
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Length: 24.40 millimetres (separate pin and spring fragment)
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Length: 31.40 millimetres (total)
-
Weight: 6 grammes (total)
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Width: 2.80 millimetres (bow)
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Width: 11.70 millimetres (separate pin and spring fragment)
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Width: 27 millimetres (spring, approx when complete)
- Curator's comments
-
Stead and Rigby 1999
Findspot: Marson (Marne)
Morel's report on the excavations at Marson was read at the Sorbonne on 4 April 1874 and again at Châlons-sur-Marne on 27 October 1874. His publication (Morel, L., 1874a, La découverte de sépultures gauloises au territoire de Marson, ‘Mémoires de la société d’agriculture, commerce, sciences et arts du department de la Marne’ (1873-4), 179-94.), virtually identical to the version in Morel, L., 1898, ‘La Champagne souterraine’ Reims, 5-20, is accompanied by the first six plates of the ‘Album’.
(b)'La voie de Lépine'
A huge cemetery at the top of and on the slopes of a hill, extending for almost a kilometre. Morel excavated here between April 1873 and February 1874 and found about 200 burials scattered over about a kilometre, sometimes in groups of four or five. Some graves held more than one skeleton, with two or three burials superimposed, or two side by side. Most graves were orientated west-east, from 1 m to 1.5 m deep, and filled with terre noire, and almost half of them had been disturbed previously. Smith, R.A., 1925, ‘A guide to the antiquities of the Early Iron Age’ (second edition), London, 64-5.
Grave 26: An undisturbed grave group below a skeleton which had been disturbed. A pair of brooches were found (one on each shoulder) but only this one survives. Also found in this grave was ML.1544, ML.1528, ML.1532 as well as three pots found at the feet (none illustrated and not identified), a bronze bracelet on each wrist ((only one is illustrated) correlated with ML.1540 in the Register, but the illustration more closely resembles ML.1444 from Somme-Bionne according to the Register)), four bronze rings, a bronze fitting and an iron ring found above the skull.
Context: Hallstatt D2 and D3 brooches:
Brooch with decorated foot: (‘Fusszierfibel’: Mansfield, G., 1973, ‘Die Fibeln der Heunburg 1950-1970’ (Römisch-Germanisch Forschungen, 33), Berlin, 37-43, form F).
3. Form F3 (Fig. 1, type L). A much more elaborate decorated foot; two-piece construction; cf. Les Jogasses graves 62, 168, 172 and 188.
Bibliography: Morel, L., 1898, ‘La Champagne souterraine’ Reims, 181, fig., and pl. 3, fig. 24 - wrongly interpreted by Brisson, A., Roulet, P., and Hatt, J.-J., 1972, Le cimetière gaulois La Tène Ia du Mont-Gravet, à Villeneuve-Renneville (Marne), ‘Mémoires de la société d’agriculture, commerce, sciences et arts du department de la Marne’ (87), 33, as a Form F4 brooch.
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Hallstatt D brooches were small and light. They often had drum-like ornaments on the bow. The spring mechanisms on these brooches were prone to failure.
- Location
- On display (G50/dc10)
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- ML.1544