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issn 0015-7813
Printed in Sweden by AMO-tryck AB, Solna, 2020
Balt-Norwegian migration of brooch design
New examples found – in Denmark
Lennart Bondeson & Tobias Bondesson
Bondeson, L. & Bondesson, T., 2020. Balt-Norwegian migration of brooch design.
New examples found – in Denmark. Fornvännen 115. Stockholm.
When the intriguing phenomenon of Balt influence on the design of Migration
Period brooches in certain parts of Norway was paid attention to in 2001, in the
first and so far only comprehensive study of this subject, just four specimens of such
cruciform or square-headed brooches with star- or spade-like foot had been recorded in Denmark. Since then, the number of Danish finds of this type has quadrupled,
to judge from scattered examples occurring in print or posted on the web. In the
present article, eleven such examples compiled from various sources, and two previously unpublished finds made in 2019 by one of the authors while metal detecting in collaboration with Danish museums, are reported and commented on.
Whether these finds in Denmark represent Norwegian “exports” or a direct Balt
influence on Danish design is at present an open question. Both alternatives might
be valid in view of other archaeological finds, as exemplified in the article.
Keywords: Migration Period, Brooch, Balt, Scandinavia
Lennart Bondeson, Repslagaregatan 6B, SE-211 21, Malmö, Sweden.
repslagaregatan6b@gmail.com
Tobias Bondesson, Einar Hansens Esplanad 65, SE-211 13, Malmö, Sweden.
t.bondesson@gmail.com
Introduction
The presence of a Balt influence on the local design of certain brooches in Norway during the
Migration Period is an interesting phenomenon.
In a comprehensive study of this subject, it is emphasized that the Norwegian brooches in question appear to have been local products with a
quite limited distribution, concentrated to Rogaland in south-western Norway (Bitner-Wróblewska 2001, pp. 65–76). When the study in
question was published, very few specimens of
this kind had been recorded outside of Norway
(see below). Therefore, we think it is of interest
to report and comment on two previously
unpublished examples, recently found by one of
us (TB) while metal detecting in Denmark in collaboration with Roskilde Museum on Zealand
and Museum Thy in Jutland. Eleven additional
examples found or recorded during the last 18
years have been compiled from various sources
and will also be commented on.
The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly,
we want to draw attention to the fact that the
occurrence of Migration Period brooches with
Balt traits in Denmark appears to be much more
prevalent than previously thought. Secondly, we
will point out observations indicating that at
least some of these brooches may have been made
in Denmark instead of Norway.
The find on Zealand
Our first example of a Balt-Norwegian type of
brooch (fig. 1) was found on August 31st, 2019, in
the plough soil of a field under cultivation at
Gammel Lejre (Old Lejre) on Zealand. Gammel
Lejre is an ancient central place with royal and
Fornvännen 115 (2020)
100 Lennart Bondeson & Tobias Bondesson
Fig. 1. The square-headed
brooch found at Gammel
Lejre, Zealand. Length 6 cm.
Cast copper alloy. Note the
rectangular metope on top of
the bow and the serrated,
curved edge of the foot.
Photo: Tobias Bondesson.
cultic traditions, where a great number of metal
objects from all periods, from the Bronze Age
and forward, have been discovered by metal detecting amateur archaeologists during the last two
decades (Olesen & Bondesson 2011; Bondesson
& Bondeson 2012; Baastrup 2015, pp. 477-563;
Christensen 2015; Nielsen & Christensen 2015;
Bondesson & Bondeson 2017; 2019).
A number of brooches from the Migration
Period have been found at Gammel Lejre, but the
one presented here (fig. 1) – a square-headed fibula showing a metope on its bow and a foot corresponding to Bitner-Wróblewska’s type V of
Balt crossbow brooches with star- or spade-like
foot – is the first brooch with a distinctly BaltNorwegian design registered in the area. Judging
from grave finds in Norway, it dates to the period from the end of the 5th through the first
three quarters of the 6th century AD (BitnerWróblewska 2001, pp. 73–74, pls. XXXV:4, XL
VII:1, 2, & L:3).
Fornvännen 115 (2020)
As mentioned, very few brooches with BaltNorwegian design have been recorded outside of
Norway. In the detailed analysis published by
Anna Bitner-Wróblewska in 2001, only three
square-headed specimens with spade-like foot
are registered: two from Denmark and one from
Bohuslän in Sweden (p. 194). The find circumstances for one of the Danish specimens are
unknown. The other Danish brooch was found at
Sebbersund in northern Jutland during professional archaeological excavation of a Migration
Period–Viking Age trading centre at the Lim
Fjord, discovered in 1987 thanks to finds handed
in to Aalborg Historical Museum by metal
detecting amateur archaeologists (Christensen
& Johansen 1992, pp. 203, 208:item C 31392,
according to Bitner-Wróblewska 2001, p. 194;
Christiansen 2008, p. 120, fig. 8c).
Balt-Norwegian migration of brooch design 101
Fig. 2. The cruciform brooch found
at Hillerslev, Jutland. Length 7 cm.
Cast copper alloy. Note the expanded and hollowed midsection of the
bow and the widened foot.
Photo: Tobias Bondesson.
The find in Jutland
Our second example of a brooch with Balt-Norwegian traits (fig. 2) was found on September
20th, 2019, in Hillerslev in northern Jutland during an annual meeting organized by Thy-Mors
detektorforening, where some 60 metal detecting
amateur archaeologists surveyed an area of arable
land, with informed consent from Museum Thy
in Thisted. The find producing area was quite recently discovered and is still expanding. The finds
are often of very high quality and not infrequently of rare or unusual types. On the same day that
our fibula was found, around 30 other Iron Age
brooches of various types and many other items,
the oldest from the 2nd century AD, were localized by metal detector in the plough soil and later
handed in to the local museum in Thisted with
GPS coordinates – a mapping of the area that
might help to direct possible future excavation(s).
As regards the cruciform brooch presented here,
the shape of its bow is of particular interest. Its
pointedly expanded and hollowed midsection is
a feature of Balt-Norwegian cruciform brooches
found in the county of Vest-Agder, i.e. the southernmost part of Norway, closest to Jutland. In fact,
our brooch from Hillerslev has a quite similar Norwegian counterpart found in a barrow in Ådland
in Vest-Agder (Bitner-Wróblewska 2001, pp. 66–
68, pl. XLIII:8). The only noticeable difference
between the two is a straight rather than slightly
curved ending of the foot plate on the Hillerslev
brooch. Regardless of this, a close relationship
between the presumably Balt-influenced Ådland
brooch and our brooch from Hillerslev is apparent, not least in view of their particular and identical bow design, being a recognized alternative
to a bow with rectangular metope in the BaltNorwegian brooches from Vest-Agder.
In the analysis by Anna Bitner-Wróblewska
from 2001, the few cruciform brooches with
mixed Balt-Norwegian traits recorded outside of
Norway – two in Denmark and three in Sweden
Fornvännen 115 (2020)
102 Lennart Bondeson & Tobias Bondesson
– appear to be quite heterogeneous morphologically. One of the Danish specimens comes from
the exploration of the exceptionally rich Iron Age
settlement complex at Gudme on Funen, a huge
project initiated in 1982 because of gold objects
handed in to Svendborg Museum by metal detecting amateur archaeologists. The other Danish specimen, acquired by the National Museum
from a private collector in the 1800s (inventory
no. NM C 5770), was probably found in Jutland,
somewhere around Viborg (Åberg 1919, p. 42, Abb.
38 & 39; Reichstein 1975, pp. 133, 135, Taf. 71:4
&107:7; Thrane 1993, pp. 8, 62, pl. 12; BitnerWróblewska 2001, p. 69, pl. XLIV:5). For reasons given below, it should be mentioned that
one of the Swedish specimens probably was
found in Scania. However, there is no further
information on either where or how (Montelius
1869, pl. 4:16).
Comment
The occurrence of a Balt influence in the design
of Norwegian brooches during the Migration
Period is presumed to be the result of trade contacts, and especially Baltic amber has been put
forward as an important reason for such longdistance travels. The exchange of design appears
to have been a one-way influence. Neither of the
two brooch types discussed had been reported
from Balt territory when the in-depth study by
Anna Bitner-Wróblewska was published. And
vice versa; with a single possible exception from
a barrow in Hordaland, there had been no finds
in Norway of the particular type of Balt crossbow
brooches thought to be the source of inspiration
for the star- or spade-like foot and the rectangular metope on the bow introduced in local Norwegian fibula design during the Migration Period (2001, pp. 59–76, figs. 11–14, pl. LI:4, 4a).
The reason that the two brooches with BaltNorwegian traits reported here came to end up in
Danish soil is anyone’s guess. Perhaps trade was
directly involved here too. This possibility is at
least close at hand regarding the brooch from
Hillerslev. Its find spot was located next to the
point on the coast of Jutland where the distance
to Norway is the shortest (about 111 km over
Skagerrak). It should be mentioned that trade
overseas in this area was established long before
Fornvännen 115 (2020)
the Hillerslev brooch was made. Actually, seaborne trade between Jutland and Norway appears to have started as early as around 2400 BC
– during the Stone Age (Østmo 2005).
Follow-up
From our search of data for this case report it has
become apparent that more than our two examples of brooches showing Balt influence on Scandinavian design have been unearthed in Denmark after the publication of Bitner-Wróblewska’s
comprehensive study in 2001. In the recently
launched user-driven and museum-connected
database DIME, designed for find reporting by
amateur archaeologists (see www.metaldetektorfund.dk), we have come across an additional
brooch with spade-like foot (DIME ID 19989), a
fibula from Hjørring, northern Jutland, with
semi oval head, which – for the sake of simplicity
– is counted here as a variant belonging to the
square-headed main type. The same applies to a
spade-footed, non-cruciform fibula with uncertain square or oval original head-shape, being
affected by severe corrosion (found at Hillerslev,
northern Jutland, and handed in to Museum Thy).
An incomplete square-headed fibula (DIME ID
43329) lacking its foot has not been included in
the numbers presented, although a rectangular
metope on its bow indicates a probable Balt influence on the design. When going through the
older archive material of thousands of find photographs posted by amateur archaeologists on the
website www.detectingpeople.dk since 2006, we
have come across two more specimens with spadelike foot; one square-headed from Nørholm near
Aalborg in northern Jutland (National Museum
danefæ record 2008-002372) and one cruciform
from an excavation at Frejlev, also near Aalborg
(Nordjyllands Historiske Museum, jnr. 6120).
Since far from all of the ancient brooches detected in Denmark are voluntarily photographed and
post-ed on the websites mentioned before being
duly handed in to their respective local museums
all over the country, we have good reasons to
believe that additional examples of the intriguing Balt influence on Scandinavian brooch design can be found in the institutional archives.
An indication that this actually is the case
appears from scattered remarks in the literature,
Balt-Norwegian migration of brooch design 103
where at least two examples of spade-footed cruciform brooches, both from Funen, have been
added to the two Danish finds recorded by Anna
Bitner-Wróblewska in 2001 (we thank Mogens
Bo Henriksen, Odense City Museums, for kindly
providing these articles: Henriksen 2005, p. 95,
fig. 20; Gotfredsen et al. 2009, pp. 86–87, fig. 17).
As regards Danish finds of square-headed brooches with spade-like foot, at least four specimens –
three of them from Jutland – have appeared in the
literature after 2001 (we are grateful to Torben
Trier Christiansen at the Historical Museum of
North Jutland, for drawing our attention to these
references: Nielsen 2002, pp. 206–207, fig. 8a;
Christiansen 2019, cat. no. 34, fig. 2e & cat. no.
35 = the brooch from Nørholm mentioned above).
A fourth example of this kind comes from Uppåkra in Scania (Hårdh 2003, U4925, p. 53, fig. 5).
Although Scania nowadays is a Swedish province
– after being conquered from Denmark in 1658 –
it seems reasonable to include this Migration
Period brooch with Balt traits from Uppåkra
among the Danish finds of that time (cf. Høilund
Nielsen 1991, p. 150). The brooch in question is
of the square-headed type with spade-like foot.
However, interestingly enough the bow is not
adorned by a rectangular metope; instead it has
the expanded, rhomboid shape being distinctive
of our find from Hillerslev in Jutland and certain
Balt-inspired cruciform brooches from Norway
(see above). The very same distinctive combination of brooch components was quite recently
noted in a not yet published find (ÅHM 6244
X338) made at an extensive excavation of a large
Iron Age settlement at Søndre Tranders in the
outskirts of Aalborg in northern Jutland. In addition, X-ray examination of a not yet excavated
specimen (ÅHM 6784 X2753) from a grave associated with this settlement has disclosed a beautifully preserved fibula of cruciform type with
spade-like foot and a rectangular metope on the
bow (Torben Trier Christiansen, personal communication by e-mail, December 4, 2019).
the Uppåkra fibula just mentioned, it is most
interesting that studies of stylistic elements regarding stamp ornamentation indicate an interchange between Scanian and Balt workshops during the Migration Period (Bitner-Wróblewska
1991, pp. 229–231, 238). The possibility of a direct Balt-Danish influence even earlier than the
Balt-Norwegian one is indicated, for example, by
horse equipment attributed to the area of presentday Kaliningrad, found in 1865 by a stonemason
digging into a Roman Iron Age grave at Gudbjerg on Funen (Albrectsen 1956, pp. 72–73, tavle
15; Thrane 1993, p. 12). Yet another such indication is a metal detector find made at Hillerød on
northern Zealand (Kjartan Langsted, Museum
Nordsjælland, personal communication, October 26, 2019). The find in question (http://fibula.
dk/ modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/11738/
1347027694img_5570.jpg) is a brooch with crossbow construction and spade-like foot corresponding to Bitner-Wróblewska’s type I, produced
from the end of the 4th century AD and thought
to be the source of inspiration for later types of
spade- and star-footed Balt crossbow brooches
(2001, pp. 59–64, fig. 11, pl. XXXV:1), which in
turn – as mentioned above – inspired the design
of the cruciform and square-headed brooches
commented on in this report.
To sum up, we have shown that finds of Migration Period brooches with Balt traits have
increased steadily in Denmark during the last
two decades, a development that coincides with
an increasing interest in metal detecting, performed legally by amateur archaeologists in collaboration with local museums all over the country. As regards the origin of the brooches in question, we have pointed out some reasons to consider the possibility of a direct Balt influence on
Danish workshops, in addition to the previously
emphasized “export” of specimens and/or inspiration from Norway, secondary to a Balt-Norwegian migration of brooch design.
Acknowledgements
Concluding reflection
When new finds of this kind are added to the collective experience, it should be kept in mind that
Balt traits in Danish brooches not necessarily
have made a detour through Norway. Apropos of
We are grateful to (in alphabetical order) the
archaeologists Anna Bitner-Wróblewska, Charlotte Boje H. Andersen, Torben Trier Christiansen, Mogens Bo Henriksen, Kjartan Langsted
and Per Lysdahl, and the detectorists Ejner SørenFornvännen 115 (2020)
104 Lennart Bondeson & Tobias Bondesson
sen, Claus Thrane and Roger Torgersen for providing valuable information. Permissions to include previously unpublished finds in the present
article were kindly granted by Museum Nordsjælland, Museum Thy, Nordjyllands Historiske
Museum and Roskilde Museum.
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