Fibulae or brooches were originally used in Ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire for fastening garments, such as cloaks or togae. The fibula designs developed into a variety of shapes, but all were based on the safety-pin principle. Brooches modelled in the shape of animals have been vastly recovered across all the Roman Empire, including Roman Britain. The distribution of archaeological finds suggests that the major production centres for such ornamentation were Britain and Gaul.
Romano-British zoomorphic brooches were immensely popular and numerous examples of rooster types with their vibrant enamel decoration have been discovered. This is a particularly colourful example with large cells of enamel still visible and untarnished.
