Here’s one of my favourite objects.

It’s the Harford Farm brooch. Excavations on the route of the Norwich southern bypass between 1989-91 revealed an early medieval cemetery at Harford Farm. From one of the graves came this brooch.

There’s a notable repair on the front, and the back plate has a runic inscription on it which reads luda:giboetaesigilae, either ‘Luda repaired the brooch’ or ‘Luda makes amends by means of this brooch’.

I was lucky enough to see this at Norwich Castle Museum back in 2024. Image: author.