Hahnheim Primer

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Idealized drawing of a Hahnheim type bow brooch (Form 1).

A Hahnheim type fibula is an early medieval form of a bow brooch and belongs to the five-button fibulae . In the 5th and 6th centuries it was part of a Franconian women's costume, the so-called four - brooch costume . They were usually worn in pairs on top of each other to attach an amulet chain or a hanging strap in the lap area of ​​a toga-like dress and were considered a status symbol .

Naming

This fibula type is named after the type locality , the Franconian cemetery of Hahnheim in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate . A pair of bow brooches from grave 57 of the burial ground was first defined in 1940 by Herbert Kühn as an independent type group. The find could be dated to the second half of the 6th century via a coin, a siliqua of the last Ostrogothic king Teja (552–553), which also belongs to the inventory of the grave , although the affiliation of the coin to the closed find complex of the grave is disputed. When processing the Diergardt collection , Joachim Werner set up the group again in 1961 and mapped 37 sites.

description

Hahnheim type bow brooches are usually made of silver or bronze and are often gold-plated. They were usually worn in pairs in connection with an amulet chain or a hanging strap. In terms of design, they have East Germanic , Gothic influences from the Danube region.

The head plate (spiral plate) is semicircular and decorated with engraved ornaments. From it radiate five multi-profiled buttons with rounds, each set with an almandine . The flat, ribbon-shaped bracket is provided with a simply ornamented central rib. It ends in a rhombic base plate (hook plate), which is decorated with geometric patterns. The tip of the footplate is designed as an animal head in style II of the Germanic animal style.

Based on the ornamentation of the base plate, the type is divided into an eastern form 1 and a western form 2. According to Max Martin's suggestion, form 1 includes the Hahnheim type bow brooches in which the base plate is provided with a double diamond structure. The area is divided into four rhombuses, which in turn are divided into four small rhombuses by a grooved cross. The footplate of Form 2 is decorated with a cross-shaped groove ornament.

A previously unique find from El Hontanar near Valencia in Spain , which can otherwise be assigned to western form 2, has a shield-shaped extension in front of the animal's head tip of the footplate. The top of the appendix is ​​decorated with four circular eyes connected cross-shaped by incised lines. Such an extension of the footplate is so far without parallels within the Hahnheim group.

distribution

Even before the beginning of the 6th century, the five-button bow brooches of the Hahnheim type came into fashion in Merovingian women's costumes, especially the so-called four-brooch traditional costumes, and can be traced back to the 7th century. Its main area of ​​distribution is the Franconian heartland, more precisely the Middle Rhine , today's Belgium , southern England and the northern French region. Whereby in northern France mainly the western form 2 occurs, in the Rhine area and southern England the eastern form 1 occurs. However, individual pieces of both forms can be found throughout the Franconian area of ​​influence.

Related types

The Junkersdorf types, in which the hook plate is more elongated, and the Dounai type are designed in a similar manner.

The Bittenbrunn type of the same time comes close to the design language of the Hahnheim primer. However, the temple of this type is narrower and higher, which brings it closer to the Gothic models. The buttons off the headstock are also not set with precious stones. With the same distribution area, the bow brooch of the Bittenbrunn type occurs less frequently.

See also

literature

  • Holger Göldner: Studies on Rhine and Moselle Franconian bow brooches. Marburg Stud. Pre- and Early History 8. Marburg 1987, p. 166f.
  • Alexander Koch : Acculturation phenomena in the field of Merovingian handicrafts. To a Hahnheim type bow brooch from central Spain. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 25 (volume 3), 1995, pp. 331-340.
  • Herbert Kühn: The Germanic bow brooches of the migration period in the Rhine province. In: Rheinische Forschungen zur Prehistory Volume 4. Bonn 1940. S. 151ff.
  • Max Martin : The Franconian burial ground of Basel-Bernerring. Basel 1976 (Basel contributions to prehistory and early history, vol. 1). P. 77f, fig. 24.
  • Rosemarie Müller, Heiko Steuer :  fibula and fibula costume. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 8, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1994, ISBN 3-11-013188-9 , pp. 512-513.
  • Frank Siegmund : Merovingian time on the Lower Rhine. Rheinland-Verlag GmbH Cologne, 1998, p. 54.
  • Joachim Werner : Catalog of the Diergardt Collection. Volume 1: The fibulae. Berlin 1961
  • Gudula Zeller: Women's costume. In: Alfried Wieczorek , Patrick Périn, Karin von Welck , Wilfried Menghin : The Franks - Les Francs. Volume 2. Zabern, Mainz 1996. pp. 673ff.

Remarks

  1. ^ Gudula Zeller: The Franconian cemetery of Hahnheim. Mainzer Zeitschr. 67/68, 1972/73, pp. 330-367.
  2. ↑ Kühn (1940), p. 151ff.
  3. ↑ Zeller 1972/73, p. 337.
  4. ↑ Werner (1961), p. 56f. and Plate 51.
  5. ↑ Zeller (1996), p. 673f.
  6. ^ Müller, Steuer (1994), p. 560.
  7. ↑ Martin (1976), p. 77f, Fig. 24.
  8. ↑ Koch (1995), p. 332f and Fig. 1.
  9. ↑ Sigmund (1998), p. 54.
  10. ↑ Martin (1976), p. 77f, Fig. 24.
  11. ↑ La Baume (1967). P. 139, plate 1 (2.4).
  12. ↑ Werner (1961), p. 56f.
  13. ^ Ernst Pohl: The early medieval burial ground of Bittenbrunn, district of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen. Bonn 1995 (Diss. Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität), p. 15f.