fibula/ frammenti, ad arco rivestito

This is a bronze fibula, a brooch of the sort used in the Early Christian period to fasten a cloak or tunic. It is not a simple pin: the arch is made of bronze wire, then clad in two pieces of worked bone. The first is a long, trapezoidal element, incised with parallel lines at its tip and hollowed to hold a circular setting. The second, at the centre of the arch, is polygonal, with four sockets for amber discs, only two survive, and two fragmentary side-pins that likely once supported bone pendants. At the end of the catch-plate sits a small, barrel-shaped piece of drilled bone. The spring, a double coil, connects the pin to the arch. The overall effect is one of intricate, layered ornament: metal, bone, amber, and the lost pendants all working together. This was a personal object, but one clearly made to be seen, a small statement of status and taste from a world where even a clasp could be a little monument.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.