Silver brooch

Northern Germanic, late 5th/early 6th century AD
Found on the island of Gotland, Sweden

Female costume jewellery

This gilded silver radiate-headed brooch is decorated with chip-carved, Style I animals, human heads and scrolls, and inlaid with black niello. The knobs at all the corners are in the form of animal heads. The wavy outline of the head-plate may be derived from friezes of bird heads on earlier forms. The design was possibly introduced by Ostrogothic craftsmen from central Europe in the late fifth century, or it may be imitating their work. Either way, the decoration may represent myths common to both areas as a sign of shared ancestry, which appears to be reflected in the name of Gotland itself.

This type of brooch comes mainly from the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Long before the Viking culture became dominant on the island from the end of the eighth century, the people of Gotland may have had links with the Ostrogoths. This connection is tenuous but appears to be supported by the carving on this brooch, which was probably worn to fasten a cloak or shawl, as suggested by the position of brooches found on bodies in graves. Such evidence gives us a little information about dress fashions of the times.

T. Sjøvold, Norske Oldfunn (Oslo, 1993)