The life of an artefact:
the brooch fragment
Discovery by an archaeologist represents just one stage in an artefact's `life'. Using the brooch fragment as an example, this page tells the story of an artefact's life from the moment it was made until the present day.
This fragment of a circular brooch was discovered by archaeologists investigating the `old' castle at Caerlaverock, around 750 years after the brooch was made.
The brooch was made by a medieval bronzesmith, working in a small workshop, probably at some time in the 13th century. The bronzesmith poured a small amount of molten copper alloy into a specially-prepared mould of clay or stone, and allowed it to cool, forming the brooch. After any rough edges had been carefully filed down, glass or glass paste `gems' were inserted into the brooch's eight raised settings. This brooch was intended to be decorative and to be sold to a wealthy person.
Someone from Caerlaverock's `old' Castle, perhaps even a member of the Maxwell family, probably visited the town where this workshop's wares were being sold by a merchant, and bought this brooch. It may have been quite valuable to them, and they would have worn it to secure their cloak or tunic. Both men and women wore brooches in medieval times. The picture below (left) shows what the brooch would have looked like when it was new. The picture on the right shows a woman using the brooch to secure a cloak.
After the brooch had been worn for some time, the part that held the pin wore very thin and eventually broke, and was beyond repair. One half of the brooch was collected together with other broken objects for recycling. This half, though, lying in the corner of the main hall of the castle, was not found by its medieval owner, and eventually became covered by soil during some building work, and was buried in the ground. There it lay for around 750 years, corroding slightly in the damp soil, until in 1998 it was discovered by a young archaeologist.
When it was discovered, the brooch fragment was dirty and very fragile. It had not been exposed to the daylight for 750 years. The castle had been abandoned for centuries, and so too had the later castle that replaced it. A fragile artefact like this could not be cleaned using water, as wetting it might cause it to corrode more and damage it. It was left to dry slowly in the open air and then wrapped in acid-free tissue paper, put inside a bag with the details of where it was found, and placed into a sealed polythene box with some silica gel to keep it dry. It was sent to a laboratory where a Conservator placed it under a microscope and carefully removed the powdery corrosion products and soil from its surface.
Now the brooch will be studied and compared with other medieval brooches that have been found before. Along with all the other artefacts found at the old castle, it will help archaeologists to find out more about the people who lived there in the 13th century.