Fibulae of East Germanic Tradition From Saint-Cheron in Northern Gaul (Late Roman Period — Migration Period)

Abstract

For the late Roman Period and the beginning of the Great Migration Period on the territory of the Western Roman Empire, and in particular in Northern Gaul, a series of items was revealed — primarily fibulae and combs that belonged to the East German, and primarily Cherniakhiv tradition. Among them there are two braided crossbow brooches with an extended stem, found in one of the burials (No. 94) of the Saint-Cheron burial ground in Chartres (France), and two braced crossbow brooches with an expanded stem. They are derivatives of the Ambros 16/4-III type fasteners from the late Roman period. Similar fasteners in the late Roman time are quite well represented in a wide geographic zone from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Such fibulae are especially typical for the Cherniakhiv culture, that is, for the German and non-German population, identified with the Goths and their allies. In the Cherniakhiv area, such fasteners are best represented in its western part, to the west of the Dniester. That is, in the territory where, according to written sources, Visigoths are localized. These brooches are also found, although much less frequently at the sites of the Wielbark and Przeworsk cultures in the Vistula basin, which also belonged to the East Germans. These fasteners in Eastern and Central Europe are dated by the 3rd—4-th centuries. The fibula from the Saint-Chiron burial ground differs from the «eastern» analogs of the Roman time by the rounded section of the back, while in Eastern and Central Europe similar fibulae have a back in the shape of a flattened faceted rod or plate. It seems that the Cherniakhiv, Welbark and Przeworsk brooches are the prototypes of agrafes from the Northern Gaul. Concerning the time of the Great Migrations, mainly for the 5th century, crossbow fibulae derived from those of Ambroz 16/4-III are rare and attested outside of the main area of distribution of their prototypes: in the North-East of the Black Sea (1 site), in Spain (1 site), in Italy (1 site) and especially in Gaul (3 sites). Fibulae of the Ambroz 16/4-III type and their derivatives were found mainly in the area of activity of the Goths during the Roman Period and the Great Migrations, between the Vistula, the Black Sea and the Iberian Peninsula. The few fibulae of this type discovered elsewhere, in the Northern Gaul, for instance, probably attest to the displacement of isolated individuals. Indeed, in the tomb of Saint-Chéron, the position of the pair of fibulae, on the thorax, is entirely in accordance with that adopted by the Eastern Germans in Roman times.