Roman Iron Age. Their forms bear strong similarities to those found much further south in Germania and the northern Roman provinces, leading to the conclusion that they originally arrived in the region as imports, perhaps by sea from an as yet undiscovered production centre in an area of former East Prussia. In contrast, the eye brooches found within the Germanic areas, north of the Roman frontier, are thought to have originated as export goods produced within the Roman provinces, some distance from the areas in which they are found. We re-examine therefore the debate surrounding local production versus foreign imports, through an innovative use of pXRF. The study compares compositional data of both imported and locally produced brooches against the current typological framework with the aim to better understand how, where and when they were made.