Brooches in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain

The result of forty years of study, this book offers an overview of the most common find, after coins, on sites in Roman Britain – the brooch. Used basically to hold outer clothing together, it was always on view and was usually decorative. This significant work is based on the study of some 15,000 specimens. Following a discussion of manufacturing techniques, methods of study and the concept of dating, the book examines in detail the myriad style of brooches from the second century B.C., when the habit of wearing brooches really took off, to the early fifth century A.D. when newcomers brought their own types of brooch and imposed them on the rest of what was to become England. The final chapter is a synthesis of various strands mentioned in the body of the book and the social implications of the great change in brooch wearing which occurred in the third century. Originally published as a two-volume hardback – split into a text volume and a second volume featuring author-drawn illustrations of some 2,000 examples – this combined paperback edition of volume 1 and 2 of Brooches in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain ensures that this important contribution to the field remains accessible to a wider audience.