299 (29)

271

Brooches

6B & figs 163 & 166) have integrally cast false stones, which could perhaps originally have been painted.

Although the brooches listed above give a generał indication of the rangę of forms and motifs available at the cheaper end of the market, several traits known widely elsewhere, such as blind holes with grooves (no. 1317), collets and raised foliage (no. 1319) and opposed decorative side elements (no. 1335) are each represented by only a single example here (figs 162 & 164). There is no known parallel for the hooked brooch (no. 1338 - fig 164) or the composite rectangular one (no. 1343, colour pl 6D). Other motifs, such as the violet brooches - represented by four examples from the same site (nos. 1364-67, fig 171) - may have enjoyed a brief, but relatively spectacular vogue that the excavated groups happen to have highlighted. This extensive sam-ple of recently excavated brooches is still too smali for reliable inferences about changing fashions at a morę detailed level.

The talismanic aspect of the two brooches with legends referring to Mary and to Jesus is elear (nos. 1336 & 1337), and similar associations were perhaps intended for those with false-lettering too. Some of the coloured-glass stones might also have carried overtones of protection against dis-ease and other misfortunes (cf hexagram mount no. 1094, colour pl 4F).