Brooch, Middle Saxon, late 7th century (copper, gold, garnet & beeswax) (see also 225857)

Floral Street, Covent Garden, is in the heart of Lundenwic, the early Saxon town of London. In August 2000, archaeologists from AOC Archaeology Group excavating there uncovered a number of graves. One grave contained the skeleton of a woman with this ornate brooch, made of copper decorated with gold plates and gold wire and set with a mosaic of polished garnets. The brooch was probably inside a bag around her neck, which also contained silver rings and glass beads. Fewer than 20 brooches of this type have ever been found. They were fashionable among aristocratic Anglo-Saxon ladies, particularly in Kent, in the 600s, suggesting that the woman in the grave was of noble, possibly even royal, birth.