Bibliogr. p. 258-282

The result of forty years of study, this book offers an overview of the most common find, after coins, on sites in Roman Britain, the brooch. Essentially used to hold outer clothing together, it was always on view and was usually decorative. Based on the study of some 15000 speciments, the second volume illustrates some 2000 all drawn by the author. The firts chapter is a discussion of manufacturing techniques, methods of study and the concept of dating. The bulk of the book then consists of nine chapters examining in detail the myriad style of brooches from the second century BC, when the habit of wearing brooches really took off, to the early fifth century AD when newcomers brought their own types of brooch and imposed them on the rest of what was to become England. The final chapter is a synthesis of various strands mentioned in the body of the book and the social implications of the great change in brooch wearing which occurred in the third century AD.