A RARE enamelled Roman brooch was possibly used in a "foundation offerings ritual" at an iron age fort in Scotland, newly published research suggests.
Research by GUARD Archaeology has provided fresh insight into how locals of south-west Scotland interacted with the Roman army during the late second century AD.
Excavations undertaken at William Grant & Sons Girvan Distillery at the Curragh in South Ayrshire in 2020 uncovered an Iron Age settlement dating to a period when southern Scotland had slipped from the grasp of the Roman Empire.
The team of archaeologists discovered the remains of what had once been a substantial timber roundhouse surrounded by a stout wooden palisade, with a large gated entranceway, likely the dwelling of a wealthy farming household.
During the excavation, an enamelled bronze brooch was recovered from the bottom of the foundation trench that held the timber palisade in place.
Now, researchers have hypothesised what the brooch was used for and how it ended up in Scotland but never worn.
"This exotic brooch and others like it typically date to the late second century AD, and are most commonly found along the borders of the Roman Empire, in eastern Gaul, Switzerland and the Rhineland," said Jordan Barbour, who co-authored the report.
‘Their distribution pattern suggests that these brooches were particularly popular among members of the Roman military forces, so it’s likely that it came north of Hadrian’s Wall on the cloak of a Roman soldier tasked with garrisoning the Empire’s northernmost frontier."
There was no evidence that it had been worn by a local Briton. Instead, they had buried it as a foundation deposit, a votive sacrifice of sorts, when constructing the timber palisade around their roundhouse.
"It’s difficult to say exactly why the brooch was deposited within the palisade trench, but we know that ritualised foundation offerings are observed across many cultures, typically enacted to grant protection to a household, and this is certainly a possibility here," said Barbour.
"As to how it ended up here, there are a few plausible scenarios. It’s the only Roman artefact recovered from the site. If the inhabitants had established regular trade with Roman Britain, we might expect to find a greater variety of Roman objects, but this is a solidly native context. Rather, the brooch is more likely to have been obtained through ad hoc exchange with Roman troops operating north of Hadrian’s Wall, perhaps even taken in battle as a trophy."
The Curragh iron-age dwelling was situated atop a rocky plateau with a steep escarpment acting to deny access from the immediate north, and it may well be the case that the dwelling was sited here and enclosed with a strong timber palisade, due to defensive concerns.
Although there were no contemporary Roman forts nearby after the abandonment of the Antonine Wall earlier in the second century AD, an earlier first century AD Roman marching camp some two kilometres to the south-west attests to previous military presence in the area, and conflict between the locals and Roman soldiers is likely to have been a recurring element of Rome’s intermittent occupation of south-west Scotland.
Traces of even more ancient inhabitation were also evidenced by the recovery of pottery dating to the early Neolithic period, when a large timber monument was constructed here, between 3700BC and 3500BC.
