Brooke Bracteate to go on display in Norwich

Norfolk Museums Services has raised £6,000 to acquire the Brooke bracteate, named after the village in South Norfolk where it was found on 1 October 2019. Dr Tim Pestell, curator of archaeology at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, said some of the money to purchase the Brooke bracteate came from Salle Metal Detectorist Group.

The find was recorded at the PAS as NMS-F0D5E7. There have been clusters of bracteate finds in Norfolk, Lakenheath in Suffolk and in eastern Kent. Dr Pestell said the discovery of one in Brooke was unusual, as most of the others have been found in coastal areas. This one features a face and some abstract creatures. Dr Pestell said “They almost certainly reflect the myths and religious beliefs of those people. And, given there is no written records which tell us about those, that sort of contemporary evidence is incredibly useful to us“