Floral or cicada brooch from Crimea, Hunnic or Alanic, 4th-5th C. CE
I stumbled across this on the British Museum website. This is either a cicada or floral brooch. I couldn't find a pic of the back, but it appears to have originally had a coil and pin from the description, and would have been meant for clothing. However, I found it interesting that it is visually very similar to the 3-pointed flowers that appear on Central Asian images of the same period such as the Sassanid's and "Iranian Hun's" crown decorations. It might be an unrelated coincidence, but I'm going to make a note of it anyway.
"Silver brooch in the form of a winged insect, or perhaps of a plant with the features cast in relief on the front. It has a hemispherical terminal of plano-convex section with two moulded ribs beneath. This forms the base for two outer wings (or leaves), which splay out either side of the central body (or bud). The wings have a roof-shaped cross-section and their edges are slightly curved. The back of the brooch is flat. The pin-catch and the spring-holder are cast. The spring-holder is a semicircular lug, perforated to secure a copper-alloy pin-spring axis. Fragments of the copper-alloy spring are preserved. The pin-catch is a single strip bent over to secure the pin. A fragment of the copper-alloy pin is preserved." (The British Museum)
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