Casgliadau Arlein

A true Dolphin brooch with the spring attached by a rear hook to hold the external chord, the Camulodunum Type V mechanism. Typically the Usk brooch has lost its spring. The side wings have knurled and plain longitudinal mouldings. The bow is badly corroded and its decorated obscured, but a ridged tongue extends over the head from the rearward hook; there is a trace of knurled ornament running down the centre of the lower part of the bow, and a ridged line runs down each side of the bow from the junction of the head with the wings. Neronian in use, this brooch could have been manufactured in time to have travelled to Usk in the Legion's initial movement west but the fragile nature of the spring arrangement suggests a later, more direct journey of shorter duration.