The Roman Period Enamel Brooch from the Medieval Burial Ground in Paūdronys

The paper provides information on a horseshoe-shaped enamel brooch dated to the B2/C1 stage (around AD 150–200), which was found in the Paūdronys burial ground dating back to the late fourteenth–fifteenth century and situated in Turgeliai eldership of the Šalčininkai district, the county of Vilnius. It was discovered in the course of the archaeological research of 2012 in grave No. 18 (Fig. 1–2), which belongs to a person older than 20 years of age and most likely a woman. The upper part of the bow of the brooch (Fig. 3–4) features a vertical rectangle with its interior filled with red enamel. Both terminals of the brooch are broadened and round; they feature ornaments in the shape of little crosses with rounded terminals; they are also filled with red enamel. The remains of an iron pin were found next to the brooch. The body of the brooch is made of a multicomponential copper alloy: copper (Cu, 74.874%), zinc (Zn, 7.562%), tin (Sn, 6.857%), lead (Pb, 9.766%), and iron (Fe, 0.941%). The pin is made of iron (Fe, 82.685%) blended with copper (Cu, 13.073%), zinc (Zn, 3.921%), and a very small amount of tin (Sn, 0.321%). No exact equivaents for the brooch of Paūdronys have been found on the territory of Lithuania. Similar brooches were discovered in certain localities of Lithuania and a wide area that stretches from Masuria (Poland) to the Middle Dnieper region (Ukraine). From a chronological and typological perspective, the horseshoe-shaped enamel brooches from Central Lithuania (brooches from the burial grounds of Marvelė and Sargėnai and the brooch accidentally found in Rumšiškės) are akin to the brooch of Paūdronys. The Roman period brooch was found in Paūdronys in an especially unsual place – a grave of a medieval burial ground dating to the fourteenth–fifteenthcentury. This piece of jewellery, which had been made and used in the first centuries AD, was most likely lost and eventually found in the Middle Ages when it was fitted for secondary use, thus nexpectedly extending its wearing tradition