A brooch from the Migration period

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This intricate brooch is made of gilded silver. The metal is as thin as potato crisp, the surface ridged with a complex decoration of faces and abstract patterns. The keen observer might spot birds, boars and humans maybe even a secret horse.

Some of the symbols were scratched on in hidden places, known only to the wearer. Such symbols are rarely just decoration but represent wider cosmological beliefs.

It was probably part of a high-ranking woman’s clothing as she was laid to rest in a burial mound. The craftsmanship for making it probably came from the workshops on the Roman-Germanic border.

(Museum number: C19858) Object type: Brooch/Fibula
Chronology: Beginning of 400 AD in Nydam/Style I (Migration period) Material: Silver and Gold Location: A burial mound in the South-East of Norway, Hedrum, city of Larvik. Technology: Photogrammetry by Letizia Bonelli

Uploaded as part of the Heritage Accessible Project