File:Roman initial T-shaped brooch (FindID 529374).jpg

English: Head and upper part of the bow of a Roman cast copper-alloy initial T-shaped brooch with hinged pin dating to c. AD 60-100. The lower part of the bow, foot and most of the pin of the brooch are missing to worn breaks. The brooch head has open-ended cylindrical wings, 30.4mm wide, containing an axis bar for the hinge. Both are complete and nearly closed at the end but one is split exposing some iron corrosion suggesting the hinge is iron. The wings are each decorated with several transverse incised lines, evenly spaced between the head and the end. There is a large transverse slot through the centre of the underside of the head, between the wings, where the pin hinges. Part of the head of the copper alloy pin remains in this slot on the axis bar and is now corroded. The pin appears to have a flat triangular head and possibly a flat, rectangular sectioned pin. The bow is D shaped in section with a flat back and convex front. It rises at c.90 degrees to the head before curving over 120 degrees in the upper part of the bow, before the break. The lower part of the bow is starting to straighten just before the break and probably originally ran relatively straight to the foot, now missing. The bow tapers in width and thickness gradually but consistently from the head to the worn break. By the break it is so narrow as to appear almost oval in section. The upper part is decorated with two moulded raised ribs, there are five at the top and they converge as they go down the bow to create two 'V' shapes, one within the other with a central short line. The ribs are raised but all defined by incised V-shaped grooves emphasising the edges. There is a pair of transverse incised V-shaped grooves across the ribs just below the head. The brooch fragment is 25.7mm long, 12.8mm thick excluding the pin, 15.6mm including and weighs 5.56 grams.

Bailey and Butcher (2004:158) illustrate similar pieces although with a range of different moulded decoration and suggest a Flavian or slightly earlier date. They suggest T-shaped brooches are very variable in the decoration on their bows and this type is mainly south western in distribution. Mackreth (2011, p.94, pl.62) illustrates a similar example, no.2357 but with four rather than five ribs and no transverse grooves on the bow from Exeter. He suggests this group is all similar enough to perhaps suggest they emanated from a single workshop, with most examples from Somerset and Devon.