Gold Bracteates Research Articles

Gold, Gods and Women

Women in lron Age Scandinavia were not passive homemakers. Instead they had considerable interest in and occasional influence over events outside the domestic sphere. Through a study of the gold bracteates - their function, runic inscriptions and iconography —the role of women will be investigated. Gold bracteates were not artefacts with exclusively male associations, but rather, they demonstrate the influence of women in political matters.

Dazzle, Dangle, and Jangle: Sensory Effects of Scandinavian Gold Bracteates

Abstract Small pendant discs known as Scandinavian gold bracteates are visually impressive indicators of status and identity during the early medieval Migration Period (c. 450–550 CE). Much of the emphasis in bracteate studies has been on typological classification and iconographic interpretation of the pictures, along with decipherment of the inscriptions, yet the sensory impression made by bracteates has been neglected. For decades, archaeologists considered it futile to speculate on the experiential; however, recent research has begun to contend with the materiality of senses and emotions in the past. In this paper, I focus on the both sensory effect of experiencing the pendants and the emotional impact of the objects on those who wore and handled them. Since bracteates are often discovered in women’s graves and show evidence of wear on their suspension loops, it is assumed that these objects were actually used in life. A spotlight on agency turns the study of bracteates from an emphasis on typology, iconography, and runology to trace instead the agency and multisensory effects of these objects on people and the effects of people’s actions on these items. This allows an examination of how bracteates were entangled with the senses and emotions of those who made, wore, and gazed upon these small but important objects. I consider what it may have felt like to make, receive, wear, lose, or bequeath a bracteate – or to deposit it into a bog or a grave.

The Bracteate Hoard from Binham — An Early Anglo-Saxon Central Place?

THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES the recent discovery of Britain’s first certain hoard of gold bracteates, found in a field in Binham (Norfolk). This find is unique in Anglo-Saxon England where bracteates have previously been found either in graves or as single finds. A further two gold bracteates and a possible die have been discovered in the vicinity of Binham suggesting a ‘bracteate cluster’. It is argued here on the basis of analogies with sites in Scandinavia and northern Germany that Binham may have acted as a central place in northern Norfolk in the early Anglo-Saxon period. In light of bracteate distribution across Anglo-Saxon England, the area of Binham is suggested as one of several sites with meaningful clusters of bracteate finds; these may have belonged to a network of central sites distributed across Scandinavia and along North Sea coastal areas in England.

Review Article: The Final Publication of the Series ‘On the Iconology of the Gold Bracteates’ and Karl Hauck’s Legacy

THE AMBITIOUS AND WIDE-RANGING project launched by the late Karl Hauck with the monograph study Goldbrakteaten aus Sievern in 1970 reached a conclusion, although not closure, with the publication of a massive volume of interpretation and evaluation in 2011. This review article seeks not only to review that publication at an appropriate scale, but also to provide a general reflection upon Karl Hauck’s scholarly legacy of practical value to an Anglophone readership.

Scandinavian Gold Bracteates in Britain. Money and Media in the Dark Ages

THE FUNCTIONS of and attitudes towards precious metal in the Late Roman and Early Anglo-Saxon Period (c. A.D. 400–700) are considered. An interpretation of the gold bracteates as active media in social and political transactions is put forward, centred around an analysis of the complexity of different types and issues within the larger finds of Scandinavian hoards and Kentish graves. Comparisons are made both with the early Germanic coinages and other forms of special purpose money and valuables, above all other types of pendants and bracteates.

The gold Bracteates from sixth-century Anglo-Saxon Graves in Kent, in the Light of a new Find from Finglesham

The gold Bracteates from sixth-century Anglo-Saxon Graves in Kent, in the Light of a new Find from Finglesham

A non‐stylistic approach to the gold bracteates

Owing to their large number, gold bracteates should be well suited to form the framework of a style chronology for the Migration Period which is not based on typological development. Where copies from the same die appear in different finds they indicate contemporaneity. The relative time of production of the associated objects in the finds may be judged from the wear on the loops and rims of the bracteates. On the basis of this a sort of stratigraphy may be established in relation to which other objects such as relief brooches may also be placed. The development of style should then be investigated through an analysis of the motives down to the smallest detail as well as an evaluation of their stylistic content. In both cases precise definitions should be applied. In the process of this work one may distinguish different workshops on the basis of consistent similarities, such as mirror image dies or specific rare details.

Adventus travels North. A Note in the Iconography of some Scandinavian Gold Bracteates

This paper is part of ongoing research concerning the iconography of some of the Scandinavian gold bracteates. In 1895 the bracteates were sorted into groups according to their motifs – however difficult to define. So far very few, if any, satisfactory solutions have been presented. The adventus motif was at one recognized as Roman, but never analyzed, nor its background. If there was a model once, it has been lost.

Furreby-hjulet

The Furreby Wheel In the summer of 1959 I found a little bronze wheel at Furreby in Vendsyssel. It lay on a wind-blown slope by the sea among potsherds from the Roman Iron-Age, arrowheads and sherds from the Late Neolithic, and steatite sherds from the Viking Period.The wheel (Figs. 1 .and 2: 1) is of the same type as the wheels on the Oseberg wagon (and one from Lindholm Høje) (fig. 2: 2-3) which have a large hub and a broad fellow, consisting of several pieces fixed together by dowels. The number of spokes is the same, 12, and there are also 12 spokes on a similar wheel from Grave 844 at Birka fig. 2: 4-7. We know from Birka that wheels of this type occur in women's graves and that they hung on the breast suspended from the neck by a chain or string, employing either the hole in the hub or an eye in the felloe. Judging by the stylized Carolingian plant ornamentation, the Furreby wheel, which must be considered a native product, should be assigned to the period around or just following 900 A. D.Wheel ornaments occur in all prehistoric periods subsequent to the invention of the spoked wheel and, in Lapland at least, also in the Early Middle Ages.The Anglo-Saxons, Merovingians and Alamanni were sometimes buried with miniature wheels. In the case of the Alamanni, they occur exclusively in women's graves, having featured as decorative discs on small round bags which hung on a chain from the belt. Similar discs have been recovered from Nordic finds (e. g. Gotland and Bornholm). Contemporary with and accompanying the Nordic gold bracteates, there are also small wheel­shaped ornaments of gold. From the Roman Iron-Age there are numerous finely deco­rated wheel ornaments.In Yugoslavia, the rich grave of an Illyrian prince of the Early Iron Age contained a small wheel with a string of amber beads (fig. 4: 5). Small wheels could also hang on fibulae in that period (fig. 4: 1-2). From the Pre-Roman Iron Age, wheels with an eye for suspension are relatively common in Denmark, especially the type with a large hub­ring in the centre (fig. 4: 3) -a type which was current in South Germany as early as Period II of the Bronze Age (fig. 4: 4).In the Bronze Age, wheel ornaments could be found in most of Europe (and Asia) ­especially in the Urnfield and Hallstatt Periods (fig. 5: 1-2). In Scandinavia, examples have been found at Härnevi in Uppland and Magleby, Nørrekjær in Zealand (fig. 5: 3). Wheel­shaped discs for attachment to the cheek guards of horses' bits also occur.It seems that the origin of wheel ornaments should be sought in the Early Bronze Age. They are commonly found in Mycenean graves (fig. 6: 1-3), and have perhaps, like the Mycenean chariots with spoked wheels, their origin in Anatolia or the Orient. From Mycenae, the custom of bearing wheel ornaments spread into Europe, often in connection with the amber trade. Suddenly, they occur in connection with wheel pins, (fig. 6: 4), which presumably originated as a cross between Unêtice pins with a disc-shaped head and wheel pendants.From this period, there is a unique Danish find of a bronze wheel in an oak-coffin burial, the wheel apparently having lain on the breast of the interred woman. The size of the wheel (17.7 cm. in diameter) exceeds both that of the miniature wagon-wheels and of the other wheel ornaments, but this large wheel seems nevertheless to belong to the latter group.The conventional interpretation of the wheel ornaments is that they are sun emblems, which is in fact the case with the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians, where they hang in necklaces with symbols of the planet Venus and the moon (fig. 8: 1-2). On the other hand, the wheel meant something quite different to the Iranians, whose four-spoked wheel was the earth wheel and six-spoked wheel the celestial wheel. In Christian art the wheel attains a new significance: the four-spoked wheel is the victory cross and the six-spoked the monogram of Christ. To the Gauls, the wheel was the emblem of the sky- and thunder god Taranis, and for the Buddhists the eight-spoked wheel is the symbol of the eightfold path to the attainment of Nirvana. Among the Romans, small wheels were borne by both children and soldiers as protective amulets, and to the present day wheels figure as pendants on horse harness, to ward off the "evil eye".It is therefore very difficult to say what significance a wheel ornament has had for its wearer, especially when it is found out of context. It would seem too hazardous to take refuge in the sun theory, when so many other interpretations are possible.Søren Krogh

Peter Riismøller

Peter Riismøller65 years Immediately after leaving University in 1936, where he had studied history and Danish, Peter Riismøller was appointed to a newly established post at the Aalborg Historical Museum, where he has worked ever since, from 1960 as director.He was born on 14th March 1905 in Skørping in Himmerland, and it was in Himmerland and Aalborg that he subsequently operated. He was thus well equipped to tackle the many problems facing a museum which covers the period from the first settlement of hunters in the district, to modern times, and interval of ten thousand years.As a student, Riismøller worked for a couple of years at the National Museum, among other things on the exhibition of the prehistoric collection in the new museum, but also in the field, at the excavation of the Ladby ship. He had by then gained his first experiences of excavation at the Stone Age village of Troldebjerg, under Johannes Brøndsted, who was both keeper of the prehistoric collections at the National Museum and his teacher at the University. For Brøndsted, Riismøller wrote special papers on the Iron Age gold bracteates, and his extensive knowledge of, for example, mythology and place names were of great value to him and his fellow students.Brøndsted played an important role in the establishment of the new museum post at Aalborg, and Riismøller considered himself Brøndsted’s loyal follower in northern Jutland. Riismøller’s achievement there were numerous, comprising all periods. He was, in particular, a pioneer among urban archaeologists, playing a large part in the investigations into early Aalborg, on which he has written excellent papers -his annual New Year’s greeting to friends and colleagues all over Scandinavia. His always exceptionally well-written papers, many of which are already rarities of our topographical literature, extend from “Fra Svendekro til Lavshus”, 1940 to “Sultegrænsen”, 1968. His opus “Danske Glas, 1825-1925”, has more than doubled the price of our antique glass. Following up this fundamental study, Riismøller has successfully excavated ancient glass works in Jutland.Peter Riismøller started his pioneer work at Aalborg Historical Museum alone, enormously increasing the collection and quickly collecting a group of able collaborators. The Museum is soon to be handed over to a successor, but then he will be able to devote all his time to publication of the extensive cultural material he has collected during a lifetime.

Comment on Egil Bakka: Methodological problems in the study of Gold Bracteates,Norw. Arch. Rev. 1,5–35

Comment on Egil Bakka: Methodological problems in the study of Gold Bracteates,<i>Norw. Arch. Rev. 1,</i>5–35

Methodological problems in the study of gold bracteates

The background for this article is Mats P. Malmer's work Metodproblem inom jarnalderns kortstbistoria, especially the chapter concerning the gold bracteates, and Egil Bakka discusses the methodology which Malmer has used when dealing with some important problems. Bakka begins by criticizing Malmer's classification and systematization of the gold bracteates. He intends to show by selected examples that Malmer's typological classification does not always involve a greater degree of similarity between the individual objects within one group than between individual objects in parallel groups, when other typological elements than those listed by Malmer are included as well. Bakka discusses in particular Malmer's production diagram, and claims that it should rather be called a deposit diagram. The concepts of subjectivity and objectivity, and the selection of typological elements when trying to classify an archaeological material, are all matter for discussion. Lastly Bakka mentions some typological elements wh...

Methodological Problems in the Study of Gold Bracteates

The background for this article is Mats P. Malmer's work Metodproblem inom järnålderns kortstbistoria, especially the chapter concerning the gold bracteates, and Egil Bakka discusses the methodology which Malmer has used when dealing with some important problems. Bakka begins by criticizing Malmer's classification and systematization of the gold bracteates. He intends to show by selected examples that Malmer's typological classification does not always involve a greater degree of similarity between the individual objects within one group than between individual objects in parallel groups, when other typological elements than those listed by Malmer are included as well. Bakka discusses in particular Malmer's production diagram, and claims that it should rather be called a deposit diagram. The concepts of subjectivity and objectivity, and the selection of typological elements when trying to classify an archaeological material, are all matter for discussion. Lastly Bakka mentions some typological elements which may be important for the iconography of the gold bracteates.

Problems of storage and communication of information in the study of gold bracteates

Problems of storage and communication of information in the study of gold bracteates

Comments on Methodological Problems in the Study of Gold Bracteates

Comments on Methodological Problems in the Study of Gold Bracteates

Reply to Comments on Methodological Problems in the Study of Gold Bracteates

Reply to Comments on Methodological Problems in the Study of Gold Bracteates