Square-headed brooches were among the most costly and elaborate forms of female dress jewellery for many Germanic peoples in the fifth and sixth centuries AD; Scandinavian in origin, they are spread widely over England and western Europe. This volume presents a fully illustrated catalogue and analytical study of some 209 brooches of this class belonging to a particular series produced predominantly in the Anglian and Saxon areas of Britain. The categorising and dating of the brooches throws light on Scandinavian influence on these areas, and is also evidence for the chronology of various types of associated finds. The practical and symbolic function of the brooches, together with changes in production and in patterns of deposition, are also considered, and the catalogue as a whole makes a major contribution to an understanding of social and cultural change in a critical period of historical development.
Dr JOHN HINES is Reader in the School of History and Archaeology at the University of Wales, Cardiff.