Casgliadau Arlein

The bow and upper part of the leg of a tiny Aucissa copy. The semi circular curve of the bow was bent out of true in antiquity. The bow tapers towards the foot and is ornamented with a central ridge flanked by a narrower rib to either side and with a marginal rib down each side of the bow. The rib decoration of the bow terminates above the leg in a narrow transverse moulding; below are futher transverse mouldings but the foot and most of the catchplate are lost. The fragment, in so far as it survives, is very closely similar, especially in respect of its remarkably small size, to a series of tiny examples from Augst. Copies such as these are thought to begin well after the start of the Aucissa proper but this does not preclude the probablility that the Usk example, closely resembling the parent type as it does, was sufficiently early to cross lowland Britain and reach Usk in the same legionary movement that was responsibly for the two true Aucissa brooces. That it was discarded and deposited at the same time as No. 11 (publication), is suggested by its having been recovered from the same deposit, albeit unsealed.