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Jewellery

Jewellery
Item name:Jewellery
Dating:6th c.
Findspot:Lajh in Kranj
On display:Medival Stories from the Crossroads

Description

Decorated brooches are the most characteristic items of Germanic female dress. The typical brooches of the 6th century are cast of silver, decorated in the chip-carved technique, inlaid with semi-precious stones and gilded. The brooches come in a variety of shapes. From the chronological attribution and the main distribution areas it is possible to ascribe particular types of brooches to particular ethnic groups.

Among the brooches from Kranj, it is primarily the disc brooches, the bird-shaped and some of the radiate-headed brooches that can be connected with the regions of western Europe in the first half of the 6th century.

The S-shaped brooches may be ascribed to the Langobards. They appear in numerous variants, usually worn in pairs, across the Langobard territory along the Danube in Pannonia and often in Italy. Fifty-eight have thus far been found in Slovenia, forty-seven of them at Kranj.

Some of the brooches from Kranj can be connected with the Thuringians, who were initially allies of the Ostrogothic King Theodoric, but became subjects of the Franks in the mid-6th century. One such brooch, with bird’s heads at one end and a mask at the other (5), adorned a girl from a distinguished family, together with a pair of disc brooches (3).


Details

1. Disc brooch, gilded silver and garnet, diam. 3.95 cm, Grave 195, Inv. No. S 1234.

2. Bow brooch, gilded silver and iron, l. 11.26 cm, Grave 11/3, Inv. No. S 729.

3. Pair of disc brooches, gilded silver and garnet, diam. 3.1 cm, Grave 287, Inv. Nos. S 856 and S 1474.

4. Bow brooch, gilded silver, l. 5.15 cm, Grave 149, Inv. No. S 1073.

5. Bow brooch, gilded silver and iron, l. 4.83 cm, Grave 287, Inv. No. S 1472.

6. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver, h. 2.35 cm, Grave 182, Inv. No. S 1199.

7. Disc brooch, gilded silver and garnet, diam. 3.22 cm, Grave 43, Inv. No. S 818.

8. Pair of disc brooches, gilded silver and garnet, diam. 2.55 cm, Grave 43, Inv. Nos. S 817 and S 819.

9. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver, h. 2.63 cm, Grave 31, Inv. No. S 776.

10. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver and garnet, h. 2.42 cm, Grave 349, Inv. No. S 1684.

11. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver and garnet, h. 2.95 cm, Grave 312, Inv. No. S 1533.

12. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver and garnet, h. 2.57 cm, Grave 277, Inv. No. S 1438.

13. Disc brooch, silver and garnet, diam. 2.75 cm, Grave 207, Inv. No. S 1281.

14. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver and garnet, h. 2.42 cm, Grave 349, Inv. No. S 1685.

15. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver and garnet, h. 2.94 cm, Grave 160, Inv. No. S 1109.

16. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver and garnet, h. 2.5 cm, Grave 104, Inv. No. S 962.

17. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver and garnet, h. 2.36 cm, Grave 112, Inv. No. S 991.

18. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver, h. 2.94 cm, Grave 292, Inv. No. S 1491.

19. Brooch in the shape of a bird of prey, gilded silver, garnet and glass, l. 2.98 cm, Grave 187, Inv. No. S 1210.

20. Brooch in the shape of a bird of prey, gilded silver and iron, l. 2.37 cm, Grave 170, Inv. No. S 1145.

21. Brooch in the shape of a bird of prey, gilded silver and garnet, l. 2.74 cm, Grave 256, Inv. No. S 1394.

22. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver and glass, h. 2.51 cm, Grave 371, Inv. No. S 1742.

23. S-shaped brooch, gilded silver and glass, h. 2.94 cm, Grave 277b, Inv. No. S 1437.

24. Pair of S-shaped brooches, gilded silver, h. 2.6 cm, Grave 243, Inv. No. S 1358 and S 1357.


Further reading

Knific, Timotej in Nabergoj, Tomaž, 2016: Medieval Stories from the Crossroads, Ljubljana, Fig. 60, pp. 48-57, 222.


On display in the Permanent Exhibition

Stories from the Crossroads
Permanent

Stories from the Crossroads

from 23. 8. 2014
Muzejska
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