Fröslunda shields

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Fröslunda shields
Fröslunda shield with a heart jump pattern

The Fröslunda shields ( Swedish Fröslundasköldarna ) are fifteen ceremonial shields from the Bronze Age , which were discovered in 1985 while plowing on the Fröslunda farm ( German  "Freyershain" ) on the Kålland peninsula , northwest of Lidköping in Västergötland in Sweden .

In 1986 archaeologists dug a long pit at the site. A concentration of shields was found in an area of ​​less than 4 square meters, most of them face up. The shields consist of a 0.3-0.5 mm thin bronze sheet and have a diameter of about 60 cm.

The thin sheet metal of the shields show that they were not suitable for combat use, but were used for ceremonial purposes. They belong to a group of splendid shields from the younger Bronze Age, which are called heart jump shields after a place in Brandenburg . By 1985 fewer than 20 heart jump signs were known, most of them from Denmark and Ireland . Only the Nackhalle sign found in a bog in Halland in 1865 was Swedish. Instead of the hump and groin decorations, it shows bird figures. Due to the concentrated occurrence in Sweden, one can assume that the type was manufactured in southern Scandinavia. The landfill in small moors creates a connection to the Nordic region. After the restoration, some shields can be seen in an exhibition in the Västergötland Museum in Skara .

Kålland peninsula with the island of Kållandsö

The heart jump shields of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany contrast with types from other regions (Denmark, Great Britain and southwest Germany). While the shields in Denmark and Great Britain were usually also found in bogs, the southern German specimens are river finds.

literature

  • Achim Leube: Heart jump (shields) . In: Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich and Heiko Steuer (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . 2nd Edition. tape 14 . Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin - New York 1999, ISBN 978-3-11-016423-7 , pp. 492 .
  • Ralf Schwarz: Splendid shields from the moor. In: Harald Meller (ed.): Beauty, Power and Death. 120 finds from 120 years of the State Museum for Prehistory in Halle (= volume accompanying the special exhibition ). Halle an der Saale 2001, ISBN 3-910010-64-4 , p. 50.

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