Anglo-Saxon cruciform brooch

Principal investigator: Liam
Level: PhD level research

Ph.D. Abstract:

The cruciform brooch is among the most abundant decorative dress accessories of the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Since the advent of the Portable Antiquities Scheme the number of known instances has dramatically increased to a value well into the thousands. Considering this status, the cruciform brooch has received surprisingly little comprehensive and published research. That which exists deals almost exclusively with typology.

My Ph.D. focuses instead on the meaning of the cruciform brooch from a stylistic and contextual basis in terms of feminine gender and social structure. The various typologies proposed for the cruciform brooch will be refined into a system more suitable for this study that will also have regional and chronological significance. The grave context of this item will be considered in terms of associated grave goods, osteological sex and age, and region. The development of the brooch´s complex iconography will be systematically analysed in the wider context of early Anglo-Saxon art history, while the significance of individual examples that demonstrate mutable meanings and object biography will be illustrated by a study of repair and modification.

Early Anglo-Saxon dress accessories are traditionally seen as key identifiers of chronology and regional identity. Though pertinent, this research goes beyond such relatively superficial factors to look at the individual social, symbolic and structural meanings of a specific brooch type, particularly in terms of gender and the life course.

Audit data

• Created: 14 years ago
• Created by: D P
• Updated: 14 years ago
• Updated by: D P