Filigree disc brooch from Mölsheim
The filigree disc fibula from Mölsheim , also known as the Mölsheim gold fibula , is an archaeological object that was found in 1930 near Mölsheim in Rheinhessen . The disc brooch from the 7th century is one of the most richly decorated brooches of the era. A farmer discovered them in 1930 during clearing work on his vineyard in the Mölsheim district. The Mölsheim gold primer is exhibited in the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt .
description
A golden cover plate is riveted onto a 8.3 cm cast bronze plate. The space between the two was filled with a clayey mass. On the edge of the brooch there are sockets for four square dark green and four round yellow glass rivers as well as for a circle of flat cut, teardrop-shaped almandines .
In the center of the fibula, a high-cut stone ( cameo ) is mounted on a two-tier structure made of sheet gold . It is framed by gold balls, pearls and almandine plates. The non-raised parts of the fibula are covered with filigree patterns made of finely pearled gold wire. In contrast to the front side, the back is very coarse and simple.
As basic form, the booklet shows a penetrated by a square quatrefoil . Quadruple brooches occur in the years 630 to 680 AD in a narrowly defined area to the left of the Rhine in the Eifel foreland , Rheinhessen and Saarland .
The manufacturer
The large stone inlays in front of a filigree relief and the pearl mounts made as gold sheet tubes around a central hump identify the fibula as a purely Franconian product. Given the high quality of the craftsmanship, it is believed that it was probably made in Burgundy under Romanesque influence.
It is not clear whether the metalworkers involved in the Merovingian era worked as independent but dependent craftsmen or as craftsmen in third-party services. However, precious metal processing was tied to a predominantly urban environment with a monastery, bishopric or royal court.
Jewelry and clothing of women
For archeology, primers are a methodical godsend. In 2,500 years its shape has changed countless times, so that an archaeological find complex can be categorized with it in terms of time and culture. In early medieval women's graves, jewelry is one of the most common additions. Girls and women were buried in their traditional costumes. The primers given refer to outer clothing that had to be gathered up somehow. Conversely, the position of the fibulae in the grave can sometimes be used to reconstruct the clothes that the deceased wore to the burial.
1,500 years ago, clothing was subject to constant change, as it is today. In the younger Merovingian period around 600 AD, the belted dress ( peplos ) tied at the shoulders with two fibulae became out of fashion north of the Alps. Instead, the woman now wore a tunic sewn together on the shoulders based on the Romanesque model. The cover was closed on the chest with a ribbon or a pearl necklace and this was pinned with a single fibula. Outstanding specimens were the golden filigree disc brooches made according to the Byzantine model, to which the Mölsheim find belongs.
Christians on the Rhine
One of the most remarkable details of the Mölsheim brooch is the centrally arranged cameo, a three-layer agate in the colors coral red, white and blue-gray. It comes from a Roman context and was already 650 years old at the time the fibula was made. He represents the head of Medusa , a Greek legendary figure, the sight of which turned people to stone. However, most scientists assume that the Medusa head was understood as the head of Christ in the early Middle Ages .
The large glass rivers at the edge of the fibula are supposed to represent a vertical and a diagonal cross. Eight drop-shaped almandins are interpreted as a halo around the face of Christ. The Mölsheim Primer is therefore generally regarded as an expression of the emerging Christianity that gained a foothold on the left bank of the Rhine in the 6th century.
Finding circumstances
The fibula was plowed out from a depth of 75 cm without any accompanying finds . Subsequent excavations revealed only a small number of rather poor row graves from the 7th century. Some of the graves containing burials were robbed in ancient times. The bones of the upper body were mostly mixed up. About the robbed tombs Christian burials are without additions . So maybe the perpetrators already belonged to Christianity.
In other row cemeteries, almost all burials were robbed in the 7th and early 8th centuries when the cemeteries were moved towards the churches. The causes of the robberies have not yet been clarified. Most often, robbery for personal gain is suspected. But the church's prohibition against burying the deceased with gifts according to pagan custom could also have played a role.
Individual evidence
literature
- D. Ittameier: Filigree Disc Brooches. In: Josef Engemann, Christoph B. Rüger : Late antiquity and early Middle Ages . Guide Rhine. Landesmus. Bonn u. Rhine. Office of the soil monument plant 134. Bonn 1991, 197-203.
- M. Martin: fibula and fibula costume. Late Migration Period and Merovingian Period on the continent. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. 2nd edition, 541-582. Berlin, New York 1994.
- H. Roth: Arts and Crafts in the Early Middle Ages. Stuttgart 1986.
- B. Thieme: Filigree disc brooches from the Merovingian period from Germany. Reports of the Roman-Germanic Commission 59, 1978, 381–500.
Web links
- Mölsheimer Goldfibel - description and illustration ( Memento from March 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 49 ° 39 ′ 0.3 " N , 8 ° 9 ′ 54.6" E