Drawing of Oval Brooch

Drawn by Adam Parsons

Drawing of an oval brooch based on examples for Adwick le Street, Doncaster. Brooches were a typical part of female dress. Scandinavian brooches came in a variety of sizes and shapes which included disc, trefoil, lozenge, equal-armed, and oval shapes. The different brooch types served a variety of functions in Scandinavian female dress with oval brooches typically being used as shoulder clasps for apron-type dresses and the rest being used to secure an outer garment to an inner shift. Anglo-Saxon brooches do not match this diversity of form with large disc brooches being typical of ninth century dress styles with smaller ones becoming more popular in the later ninth and tenth centuries. However, since disc brooches were used by both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian women they are distinguished by their morphology. Scandinavian brooches were typically domed with a hollow back while Anglo-Saxon brooches were usually flat. Moreover, Anglo-Saxon brooches were worn singly without accompanying accessories.

Object Type

Brooch

Date

circa 850 — 900

Ascribed Culture

Material

Collection

Viking Designs

Keywords

brooch, copper_alloy, costume, jewellery, South_Yorkshire, Viking, women

Further information

Acknowledgements

Drawn by Adam Parsons of Blueaxe Reproductions

References

Speed, Greg, and Penelope Walton Rogers. “A burial of a Viking woman at Adwick-le-Street, South Yorkshire.” Medieval Archaeology 48, no. 1 (2004): 51-90.

Kershaw, Jane F. Viking identities: Scandinavian jewellery in England. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 20-25.