'Eye-catching' Iron Age brooch found by detectorist

The 51mm (2in) long Birdlip brooch was made from gilded silver

An Iron age brooch made just before the Roman invasion was designed to be eye-catching, showing off the importance of its owner, says an expert.

The piece of gilded silver jewellery was discovered by a metal detectorist at Carleton Rode, near Attleborough, Norfolk, earlier this year.

Dr Natasha Harlow, an expert in portable Iceni objects, said it was quite a rare piece and was probably made in East Anglia.

The brooch is going through the treasure process and Norwich Castle Museum is hoping to acquire it.

"It would have been very eye-catching, as it was made from silver and it was partly gilded, so it had these flashes of gold and silver," said Dr Harlow, who is an honorary research fellow at the University of Nottingham.

"[The Iron Age] would have been a very bright and colourful world to live in, which is not necessarily what we think of when we think of British pre-Roman history."

Only 17 similar brooches have been found in Norfolk making then quite rare, said Natasha Harlow

The find has been dated to between 30BC and AD60 and is reminiscent of other late Iron Age finds from Norfolk, she said.

In particular, she pointed to three little pellet shapes at its base, which are seen in Iceni coins and horse metal work.

The Iceni were a tribe occupying present-day Norfolk and Suffolk and are most famous for queen Boudicca, who led a revolt against the Romans.

Dr Harlow said: "In northern East Anglia, there is a regional distinctiveness to the settlements and we tend to see people showing their wealth and status through the small items they wore - it shows something about the wearer's importance and access to resources."

This style of brooch is known as the Birdlip type, because the first one of its kind was found at Birdlip, near Gloucester.

In a time before buttons and zips, brooches were also believed to have had a practical purpose, acting as safety pins to hold clothes together, Dr Harlow added.

A coroner at a treasure inquest typically decides whether the discovery is treasure, and therefore whether a museum should have first refusal over it.