A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK Fig. 14 Part ok Bracelet-clasp, Mildenhall (J) 7th century. It is of bronze gilt, and belongs to a bracelet-clasp now missing ; a complete specimen from Harrington, in Cambridge Museum, shows the exact relation to the two limbs of the clasp, though the origin and utility of such an addition are not apparent. Special notice must also be taken of a brooch (fig. i 5), in Mr. Fenton's collection, from Mildenhall. It is of bronze that has been in contact with iron and received a coating of iron rust, but is intact but for the pin and the square enamel setting at the centre. Traces of the red filling still remain, and birds' heads may still be traced at the end of the swastika, which forms the body of the brooch. Plain rectangular brooches of swastika or fylfot form are not uncommon in the Roman pro- vinces, and one has been found in Brough, Westmorland, but the present specimen is a Teutonic version of the Roman pattern, and is allied to large and richly orna- mented specimens of silver (or with applied silver plates) generally found in Denmark, but also occurring sporadically in Norway, South Sweden, and Mecklenburg," always in the graves of women. The springs on these to give tension to the pin are long spiral coils of wire, but this system had evidently been simplified before the Mildenhall brooch was made, as the two lugs for the hinge are quite close together. As the type lasted a comparatively short time and some specimens are known to belong to the latter part of the 3rd century, the Suffolk example may belong to the 4th or possibly the early 5th century, and is in any case one of the earliest Teutonic antiquities in this country. The most important find at Mildenhall is undoubtedly the set of enamelled mounts of a bowl in the Cambridge Archaeological Museum. They consist of four escutcheons, three having had hooks attached to their frames and the fourth belonging to the bottom of the bowl ; a bronze ring showing traces of wear inside and evidently belonging to one of the chain hooks of the bowl ; narrow strips of bronze with sunk red enamel (mostly wanting) in a fret pattern ; and silver strips notched at their edges that apparently surrounded the escutcheons within the frame of bronze. The bowl to which all these enamelled mounts appertained is unfortunately wanting, but its size and charac- ter are evident from similar discoveries in other parts of England. The best parallel is the set from Barlaston, Staffordshire, found in a warrior's grave and republished in this series.^* The strips with their slanting ends are practically identical, and seem to have been fixed on the outside of a bowl (about 9 in. in diameter) in the three spaces between the hook-escutcheons and just below the " S. MuUer, Ordning af Danmarks Oldsager, Jern&lderen, no. 266 ; Almgren, Nordeurofdische Fibe/formen, p. 104, figs. 232-5 ; Montelius, Den nordiske jemilderns Kronologi, p. 240 ; Memoires de la Socu:e des Anliquaires du Nord, 1878, pp. 22, 29. " F.C.H. Staff,, i, 21 1. 346 Fig. 15. — Bronze Brooch, once Enamelled, Mildenhall (J)
