A 2nd century Roman enameled bronze brooch disc fibula discovered at a distillery in South Ayrshire, Scotland. The plate brooch is of a kind often present in jap Gaul, Switzerland or the Rhineland and is a really uncommon discover for Scotland. They have been well-liked with Roman troopers within the 2nd century, so it probably hitched a journey to Scotland with a soldier garrisoning the northernmost frontiers of the Roman Empire at Hadrian’s Wall.
The brooch is embellished with an intricate enameling sample of two concentric circles forged into the disc. The outer circle has roundels of alternating colours towards a blue background. The interior circle is white enamel with slices of millefiori enamel excessive of it. Within the middle is a raised knob riveted in place that initially had an enamel middle which is now decayed.
It was present in a 2020 excavation at William Grant & Sons Girvan Distillery the place archaeologists found the stays of an Iron Age settlement with a big roundhouse surrounded by a timber palisade with a gated entrance. The roundhouse was constructed on a rocky plateau that’s naturally defensible. The sturdy picket palisade and plateau-top location confirms that the house owners, probably a affluent farming household, prioritized their safety.
The brooch was discovered on the backside of the muse trench of the timber palisade. It was not misplaced or discarded, not hooked up to a burial garment or included with different a grave furnishings, however somewhat intentionally positioned as a basis providing. There are a number of comparable examples of Roman brooches getting used as boundary deposits in Scotland, so the brooches that made their approach up north have been held in excessive regard and utilized in ritual contexts.
‘It’s tough to say precisely why the brooch was deposited throughout the palisade trench, however we all know that ritualised basis choices are noticed throughout many cultures, usually enacted to grant safety to a family, and that is definitely a risk right here,’ stated Jordan Barbour. ‘As to the way it ended up right here, there are just a few believable eventualities. It’s the one Roman artefact recovered from the location. If the inhabitants had established common commerce with Roman Britain, we’d anticipate finding a larger number of Roman objects, however it is a solidly native context. Moderately, the brooch is extra more likely to have been obtained by means of advert hoc trade with Roman troops working north of Hadrian’s Wall, even perhaps taken in battle as a trophy.’
The excavation have uncovered proof of a a lot earlier roundhouse from the seventh century B.C., and pottery and pit alignments from a big timber monument going again to the Neolithic, between 3,700 and three,500 BC.
