end of the wire being bent across above the coils of the spring, as in Fig. 3. The bow of the fibula is undecorated, but the catch for the pin is perforated so as to form a step pattern. This brooch was found in the Baths above the cobbling of the rampart, a position which would indicate that it had been lost not earlier than the middle of the second century. A brooch which has many affinities to it occurred among early finds at Polden Hill,[1] and in a grave at Colchester the type was associated with the 'poor man's fibula' and with an urn which is assigned to the first century A.D. Its position at Newstead, however, certainly indicates that it belongs to the second century, and this is confirmed by the recent discovery of a fibula, almost identical in shape, in a Mile Castle on the wall of Hadrian, at Gilsland, in the course of excavations carried out by Mr. J. P. Gibson and Mr. F. G. Simpson. The pottery of the Mile Castle gives no indications of any inhabitation before the end of the first century. Fig. 5 differs from the preceding in that its spring is entirely covered, while an undulating line is incised down the back of the bow, a form of decoration that occasionally appears on early brooches. The catch for the pin is gone. Probably, however, it was perforated much like the catch of Fig. 4. Fig. 5 was found in the South Annexe, while a similar specimen came from the Praetentura. An enamelled example from Procolitia is to be seen in the Museum at Chesters, and there are several at the Saalburg, one of the latter having been found in association with a coin of Pius. The type seems to belong to the second half of the second century.
S-shaped or 'dragonesque' fibulae
Figs. 6 and 7 are probably akin to one another. Fig. 6, which was found outside the West Gate, some 3 feet 6 inches below the surface, is made from a single piece of bronze wire beat into the form of the letter S, the ends being coiled into spirals. The pin is formed of a separate piece of wire attached to the main stem of the brooch by a loop. In the Victoria Cave, Derbyshire, a similar brooch[2] was associated with brooches resembling Fig. 7, and it seems probable that in this simple little ornament there survives the early type from which the decorated S-shaped or 'dragonesque' brooches, such as Fig. 7, took their origin. Both have the same outline and the same method of attaching the pin. A few specimens of these S-shaped brooches have been found on the Continent. But they are by no means common there, and the
1 Romilly Allen, Celtic Art, p. 102.
2 Boyd Dawkins, Cave Hunting, frontispiece.
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