Bossed penannular brooches reconsidered

Abstract

In this article the author presents a shortened version of his detailed discussion of Olav Sverre Johansen's paper, ‘Bossed Penannular Brooches: a Systematization and Study of Their Cultural Affinities’ in Acta Archaeologica 44 (1973), pp. 63–124; the full version is in Medieval Archaeology 19 (1975), entitled ‘Bossed Penannular Brooches: A Review of Recent Research’. Two additions to (and three deletions from) Johansen's catalogue are submitted, and a minor revision of his classification of the material into subgroups is suggested. Problems concerning the production and distribution of the brooches are discussed, leading to the conclusions that most were cast and not hammered, and that they were probably not produced in north‐western England, as claimed by Johansen. The author is unable to accept Johansen's conclusion that, with the exception of one subgroup, the group is the product of a Norse milieu. A discussion of the cultural affinities of the brooches leads the author to conclude that the group is firmly rooted in the native Irish brooch tradition, although displaying influences from England and Scotland.