The Harford Farm Brooch is a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon disk brooch. The brooch was originally made in Kent and was found along with a number of other artifacts during an excavation of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Harford Farm in Norfolk. The brooch measures 72 millimetres (2.8 in) across and was found in grave 11. The front of the brooch is gold decorated with glass and garnets while the backplate is silver. On the back of the brooch there is a runic inscription reading "ᛚᚢᛞᚪ:ᚷᛁᛒᛟᛏᚫᛋᛁᚷᛁᛚᚫ" (luda:gibœtæsigilæ), which Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service translates as “Luda repaired the brooch”; however “may Luda make amends by means of the brooch” has been offered as a translation by Alfred Bammesberger in the journal Neophilologus. In addition to the runes, the back of the brooch also has a scratched zoomorphic decoration.
The brooch is now on display at Norwich Castle.
References
- ^ "Harford Farm Disc Brooch". Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
- ^ "Anglo Saxons and Vikings at Norwich Castle Gallery". A Sense Of Place. BBC. 21 May 2004. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
- ^ "The Harford Farm assemblage". Art Fund. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
- Williams, Howard (2006). Death and Memory in Early Medieval Britain. Cambridge University Press. pp. 67–72. ISBN 1139457934.
- Ashwin, Trevor; Penn, Kenneth; Davis, Mary (1992). "A silver composite disc brooch from Harford Farm, Caistor St Edmund". The Quarterly (5): 12–16.
- Bammesberger, Alfred (2003). "The Harford Farm Brooch Runic Inscription". Neophilologus. 87 (1). Springer Science: 133–135. doi:10.1023/A:1021277926944. S2CID 160608493.
- Martin, Toby F (December 2011). "7" (PDF). Identity and the Cruciform Brooch in Early Anglo-Saxon England: an Investigation of Style, Mortuary Context, and Use (Ph.D.). University of Sheffield. p. 314. Retrieved 22 January 2015.