Ansate brooches were rare finds, but metal-detecting has showed they were common part of A-S dress.so I made a gif http://t.co/dNGClEIrVX
— Rosie Weetch (@rosieweetch) May 17, 2014
I was very struck by the distribution maps for finds of Anglo-Saxon ansate brooches produced by Dr Rosie Weetch of the British Museum. It is very striking that the number of recorded "finds" increases from 2010 for both Norfolk and Suffolk. Weetch puts this rise down to the number of brooches recovered by metal-detecting.
It would be interesting to know how many Anglo-Saxon ansate brooches come from secure, excavated contexts.
What are the intellectual consequences if the majority of the brooches do not have secure contexts?
For the record the PAS database has 49 brooches for Suffolk, and 92 brooches for Norfolk.
See also comments by Paul Barford.