Söderby's hoard
The Söderby hoard was discovered in Söderby in the parish of Danmark in Uppland , not far from Uppsala ( Sweden ), during drainage work in a marshland in 1876 .
description
The hoard from around AD 400-550 consists of ten golden bracteates and fragments of other objects. The front and back of the bracteates show unique motifs in the bracteate iconography . A (non-Christian) cross is shown on one side. The other side shows a chimera doing a backflip. This motif appears as a somersault over a ship on Swedish Bronze Age rock carvings . It was interpreted, among other things, as a representation of Odin who takes on animal form in this way. The artist has depicted the moment when one half of the god is anthropomorphic and the other is zoomorphic. The find has long held a leading position in the discussion about the representations on bracteates and there are different interpretations.
Follow-up examination
In the 1990s, the old sites were searched again with metal detectors to find out whether there were other objects stored there that had been overlooked at the time of the original find. During the follow-up examination in 1995, a bent piece of gold sheet was found, which turned out to be a large bracteate that lacked the loop. The eyelet was found about 20 m away. The new bracteate also had previously unknown motifs. Around its edge ran a wreath with human figures in full figure. The central motif shows the torso of a man holding a snake in one hand and a staff in the other. He is surrounded by monsters executed in contemporary animal ornamentation. A border runs around the motif, on which one recognizes figures and braided or animal ornaments depicted in profile.
rating
The iconography of the bracteates is relatively uniform in the different epochs. This applies to both the motifs and their style. Individual creations are excluded. The golden bracteates have such a uniform canon of images that a defined imagery must be assumed. This means that only the “official” iconography of a supraregional class can be revealed in the bracteates, as was the case with the coin and medallion images in the Roman Empire . If this were not the case, there would have been many different iconographic styles during the Migration Period. Due to the fact that not every local ruler in Scandinavia at that time was able to develop individual image codes, the imagery is recognizable as a supraregional work in the Nordic world at that time. It could only be created, maintained and disseminated through intensive exchange between the class using it. Cult centers played a role as administrative and religious places as well as trade hubs (e.g. Gudme ).
The Söderby find is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, it is the choice of motif for the bracteates. All three stand in isolation in contemporary bracteatic art. The other aspect is the - further than usual - deliberate destruction of the last found bracteate. The destruction also affects the individual motifs and must have a ritual background. Under the microscope, it was found that figures had been scraped off with a sharp instrument. One figure of the border shows cracks and points in the heart area and on the genital organs. Others wear similar marks on their necks. It seems as if the characters' necks were symbolically cut and castrated. What triggered this behavior, which was actually determined and described in myths, is unknown.
literature
- Karl Hauck : On the iconology of the completed bracteaten hoard from Söderby. In: Jan Peder Lamm et al .: "The bracteate of the century" - About the unique tenth bracteate from Söderby in the municipality of Danmark, Uppland (On the iconology of gold bracteates LVIII). In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien 34 (2000), pp. 18–67.
- Jan Peter Lamm et al .: "The bracteate of the century". About the unique tenth bracteate from Söderby in the municipality of Danmark, Uppland (On the iconology of gold bracteates, LVIII) 2010
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jan Peder Lamm: "Århundradets brakteat": kring fyndet av en unik tionde brakteat från Söderby i Danmarks socken, Uppland . In: Fornvännen . tape 94 , no. 4 , 1999, p. 225–243 ( online [PDF]).
- ↑ Alexandra Pesch: Uppåkra in the light of the form families of the migrant gold bracteates . In: Britta Hårdh, Lars Larsson (Eds.): Central Places in the Migration and the Merovingian Periods . Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm 2002, ISBN 91-22-01979-0 , p. 55-78 ( online [PDF]).