Lock
The Berlocke ( French breloques , "appendage") is a small pendant or other jewelry item made of metal, precious stone , ivory , porcelain or other valuable materials.
Between the turn of the times and the early Middle Ages , very special pendants were made in Northern Europe, especially at the beginning, partly from gold. The oldest form (type I), which belongs to the 1st century AD, has a simpler decor and almost spherical shape. There is no evidence of this type in Scandinavia . The somewhat more recent form (type II), an almost flat inverted pear or pine nut shape, and the youngest (type III), the inverted pear shape, are in Scandinavia (norweg. Berlokk from the cemetery of Vereide / Norway - 1993 as one of the few in Norway found) proven by finds. They were so common that the pear-shaped curls make up about 60 percent of all pendants found in the region.
The focus on Scandinavia is clear, but Berlocken is also known from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. The younger ringlets (around 70–210 / 220 AD) mostly have a top that is almost entirely covered by gold wires. Curls were found almost exclusively in women's graves. But there are two known graves from Jutland , where the buried person was probably a man. Both graves contain the older form of curls. It is possible that the early type had not yet developed into the purely women's jewelry that the younger form represents.
In the second half of the 18th century, a new generation emerged, which was worn as pendants and ornamental pendants on the watch strap or on the watch chain ( chatelaine ), but also on the charivari . Uniforms were also decorated with curls.
A modern form of this type of jewelry is the charm bracelet . As traditional costume jewelry, there are still curls today, especially in the Alpine region.
The curls appear in the novella wreath Das Allegedicht by Gottfried Keller .
literature
- Kent Andersson: Gold of the North. Scandinavian treasures from the Bronze Age to the Vikings . Theiss. Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8062-2184-8