Domed Oblong Brooches of Vendel Period Scandinavia Ørsnes Types N & O and Similar Brooches, Including Transitional Types Surviving Into the Early Viking Period
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Domed oblong brooches of Vendel Period Scandinavia Ørsnes types N & O and similar brooches, including transitional types surviving into the Early Viking Period Martin Rundkvist Abstract This is a study of domed oblong brooches of Vendel Period Scandinavia, i.e. Ørsnes types N & O and similar brooches, including transitional types surviving into the Early Viking Period. A database of 593 brooches from all of Scandinavia, most studied first-hand by the author, is the material base of the investigation. The brooches’ typology, chronology, function, social significance, technological characteristics, production sites, interregional variation and ideological connotations are studied and interpreted. Unique brooches are also described and discussed. Finally, the brooches from Uppåkra are discussed against the background of the new results. Two new seriation chronologies for Vendel Period female graves on Bornholm and in mainland Sweden are appended. Martin Rundkvist, Vantvägen 9, SE–133 44, Saltsjöbaden, Sweden, [email protected] Introduction and delimitation This is a study of the domed oblong brooches of types onward (Petersen 1928; Brinch Mad- Vendel Period Scandinavia and the transitional sen 1984; Jansson 1985). Petersen (1928:24) types that survived into the earliest Viking Peri- considered P25 to be the earliest type of the od. It treats brooches of Ørsnes’ (1966) south Viking Period. The study likewise excludes Scandinavian types N (oval bowl brooches) similar brooch types of the later Viking Period and O (animal-shaped bowl brooches) as well indigenous to Finland and the Baltic States (cf. as similarly shaped brooches found in more Ailio 1922; Spirgis 2007). northerly parts of Scandinavia, including fea- The brooches under study exhibit bewilder- tureless and punch decorated ones. ing variation that has stimulated 130 years of The study excludes Scandinavian brooch research. The most substantial contributions types that are generally accepted as part of the have been made by Montelius (1873;, 1877), Viking Period’s typological definition, from Vedel (1890:45–65; 1897:84–93), Stjerna the P25/R650, P27/R648 and Berdal P11–24 (1905:147–154, 194–199), Petersen (1928), DOMED OBLONG BROOCHES OF VENDEL PERIOD SCANDINAVIA 127 Arbman (1932), Gjessing (1934:143–163), designs indicate a common world of ideas and Arwidsson (1942), Bertil Almgren (1955:81– close contacts among artisans across the distri- 87), Ambrosiani (Ms. 1956–1960), Ørsnes bution area from Troms to Fehmarn. In fact, (1966:148–160), Bakka (1972), Vinsrygg the variability of the brooches seems mainly to (1979) and Høilund Nielsen (1999:164–167). be due neither to chronology nor to regional New perspectives offered in this paper are variation, but to the intentional manufacture mainly due to a) a significantly enlarged mate- of unique jewellery. This would in turn appear rial base including the abundant metal detector to have something to do with the prevalence finds of recent decades from south Scandinavia, of animal art on the brooches. We are dealing and b) a widened geographic scope covering with a period in which animal art was still a all of Scandinavia. The study is based on 379 controlled symbolic medium and a preroga- brooches that I have studied and photographed tive of the aristocracy. Only with the appear- first-hand, 115 ones of which I have photo- ance of serial produced and uniform jewellery graphs or good illustrations, and 99 ones of types in the Early Viking Period (from types which I know only the find locations and more P25 and P27 onward) did animal art enter or less specific type determinations. the mainstream. A particular problem in establishing a typo- logical classification scheme for these brooches Typology is that their total variability is unevenly dis- The basic decorative design of most brooches tributed across the population. In other words, under study here is a flattened quadruped seen any classification system with a low and work- from above whose two sides are often detached able number of types for these brooches must from one another along the spine. The brooches include some counter-intuitive types. These were clearly thought of as representing animals will contain sub-clusters and will thus be dif- throughout the Late Vendel Period and into ficult to visualise. They cannot be illustrated the Early Viking Period, where the flattened with a picture of a single “type specimen”. quadruped motif survives on certain Berdal I have attempted to solve this problem by a brooches (e.g. Petersen 1928 fig. 16). two-level binomial classification scheme. Apart All previous typological work on these from a few truly idiosyncratic uniques (pp. brooches has focused on size and decoration, 172–174), all well-preserved brooches can be demonstrating that the brooches were gradu- assigned to one of 20 types. Some members of ally made larger and larger through the Ven- a type are similar enough to each other that I del Period and onward, while their decoration have assigned them to a variant, usually named became more and more abstract. Regional after a find locality. Note that most brooches variation has also been demonstrated. are not assigned to any variant, simply because The great variability of the brooches invites they have no close kin on the sub-type level. taxonomic oversplitting, i.e. the definition of a When discussing the most intricately deco- large number of types with only a few members rated brooches, I also operate with a concept (or even a single member) each. This tempta- of groups on the level above the type. Thus, tion should be resisted for two reasons: a) the each variant is a subset of a type, and each type use-period of the studied brooches seems to among the intricately decorated brooches is a have lasted for less than 150 years, and b) the subset of a group. 128 MARTIN RUNDKVIST Table 1. Overview of the typological classification system. Decoration: plain Length <60 mm — type SPL Length >68 mm — type R640 Decoration: punched Length <56 mm — type SPU Decoration: intricate Outline: oval Pin fastening: cast — group N (7 types) Pin fastening: soldered — group R643 (5 types) Outline: irregular Pin fastening: cast — group O (4 types) Pin fastening: soldered — type Stor-Skomo In the following I will present a pan-Scan- 2. Punch decorated surface (dot circles), may dinavian typological scheme (summarised in also have lines or grooves. table 1) developed on the basis of previously 3. Intricate cast or incised decoration. published regional schemes. It is devised to map chronological and regional variation. The Following the examples of Ørsnes (1966) and first classificatory step is a tripartition on the Høilund Nielsen (1999), I have studied the basis of decoration: length of the brooches (fig. 1). The distribu- tion is bimodal with the main discontinuity at 1. Plain surface, may only have simple lines 78 mm. The two peaks in the histogram cor- or grooves as decoration. respond to two ideal sizes envisioned for these Fig. 1. Length histogram. Types before c. AD 750 are short, <78 mm. Longer types appear after that date, though some short brooches are still made with characteristic late type TT decoration. DOMED OBLONG BROOCHES OF VENDEL PERIOD SCANDINAVIA 129 Table 2. Plain surface brooches. Population description Small Plain / SPL (n=59) R640 (n=38) Outline shape 91% elliptical, 7% truncated elliptical, Elliptical 1% egg-shaped (n=58) Transversal profile 78% semicircular, 22% trapezoid w Squat, evenly rounded, steep sides curved sides (n=53) Pin fastening 89% cast lug & catch, 11% both solde- 90% soldered metal strip, 10% lug & red singly (n=38) catch soldered singly (n=30) Number of lugs Single ? Cast textile impressions 7% (n=43) None Matched pairs None: rarely found in pairs, always Yes, commonly dissimilar Length (mean ± std dev.) 40.4 ± 6.0 mm (n=47) 88.1 ± 9.5 mm (n=15) Width (mean ± std dev.) 18.1 ± 3.9 mm (n=48) 67.8 ± 9.0 mm (n=13) Height (mean ± std dev.) 8.4 ± 1.8 mm (n=43) 18.9 ± 5.6 mm (n=17) Edge thickness (mean ± std dev.) 1.1 ± 0.3 mm (n=43) 0.8 ± 0.6 mm (n=24) W/L (mean ± std dev.) 0.45 ± 0.07 (n=45) 0.75 ± 0.07 (n=12) H/W (mean ± std dev.) 0.47 ± 0.11 (n=44) 0.28 ± 0.05 (n=12) brooches. Find combination studies show that R640 Large (L>68 mm) plain thin-shelled the peaks have chronological significance: in brooches with the pin’s fastening the early 8th century the fashionable length arrangements soldered onto the inside of a brooch was c. 40 mm, in the late 8th cen- of the brooch, usually placed at the tury it was c. 84 mm. The distinction between ends of a separate curved metal strip (cf. small early brooches and large late ones will Fig. 3). be important in the following. Small Plain brooches – type SPL Plain surface brooches Of the 53 type SPL brooches that I have stu- These brooches have a plain surface and can- died or seen good illustrations of, 36% have not have any more intricate decoration than simple lines or grooves. Eleven have a trape- simple lines and/or grooves. They are divided zoid profile, which means that the surface is into two clearly separate main types with dis- divided into three longitudinal facets. Ten have tinct chronological and geographical habitats. a single thin line along the edge. Seven have The Small Plain type (SPL) is equivalent to a wide spinal groove. One (stray find, SHM Høilund Nielsen’s (1999) type 1a. The type 2076:18) has two edge lines and a spinal field name R640, used by Petersen (1928:5–7) and covered with transversal line hatching.